Wings of Change
by Screwthehype
Summary: Faunus- humanoid creatures with animalistic body parts. Some have animal ears, some have claws, some horns. But like people, some of them can be quite a rare catch indeed. Take me, for example. Not only am I in the always rare Human-Faunus family, my line is one of the only few that can take to the skies! Arc Pride! Cover by DARKPHANTOM13. (Check out this guy's Deviantart page.)
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Guess who's back, back again? Screw is back, tell a friend.**

 **Here comes my latest work of mediocrity, my own take on the Faunus!Jaune and Angel!Jaune AUs. Enjoy.**

* * *

In a rather messy apartment building, there laid a single, unmoving figure. Despite being covered by thick blankets, one could easily see the figure's chest rising up and down. A light snoring could be heard as the person slept in blissful peace.

Suddenly, a bright light shone, right in front of the bed. Two figures emerged from it. They took in the state of the room, from the shirts strewn haphazardly to last night's leftover pizza, sitting patiently on the kitchen table. There were controllers still not put back in place, and soda cans littered the ground. This was all in contrast with the regal appearances of the two invaders, along with the sword and shield hanging over the bed.

"Valkenhayn, do wake him up, please." Spoke a girl appearing no more than twelve. She had pale skin, blonde twintails, red eyes, Gothic Lolita clothing, and two bunny ears poking out from her head. In one of her arms, she had a red bat plush-toy. The other held the arm of the man next to her, an elderly gentleman with a long ponytail, a wolf's tail, and an aquamarine suit.

"As milady wishes." Walking closer to the sleeping form, the man elegantly bowed down so that his mouth was close to the occupant's head. "Milord, it is time to wake up." No response. "Sir, you must wake up." A slight stir, accompanied only by the words "Five more minutes". "Sir Jaune, I insist you wake up now." The man in the bed just moved the blanket to cover his head. "It appears to be no use, Madam Rachel."

"Never mind, Valkenhayn. I will wake my older brother." She raised a hand, and an arc of lightning erupted from her fingertips, striking the young man in the tush. An exclamation of pain, followed up by the teen leaping out of bed.

"Yeeowch! What the crap, Rachel?" He was in a blue rabbit onesie, which matched his eyes. His head was a mop of messy, blonde hair, topping a young face belonging to what appeared to be a seventeen year-old male. His body was lean and fit, not too muscular. No, too much muscle would make the large, white wings on his back hard to use.

After he finished rubbing his butt, which was in a shocking amount of pain, a digital alarm clock resting upon a nightstand sprang to life, blaring throughout the room. Jaune slammed his fist down on it, turning off the alarm. He felt fatigue flow throughout his body, leading him to stretch his arms and his wings. His impressive fifteen-foot wingspan accidentally hit a vase, sending it tumbling to the ground.

The wolf butler moved to clean it up. The young man had a different idea. "No, no, Valkenhayn, leave that mess to me. I'll take care of it, along with, uh," he gestured around himself. "The rest."

"As you wish, milord." The girl held her hands to her face as she watched her brother start to clean up.

"Honestly, brother, why must you attend a commoner's academy such as Beacon? Father would be able to hire a much more suitable instructor. And if you simply must attend an academy, why not one in Falconia? They're all much closer to the castle." He stopped throwing away cans, and sighed.

"You know why, Rachel." He started to pick up his shirts, throwing them inside a suitcase. "As the firstborn, and only, son, I'm the one next in line for the throne. Sure, I know how to act when it comes to high-class situations in Falconia, which is completely barren of humans by the way, but I have no idea how to act around the little guys, or non-Faunus. It's best to do this type of diplomatic action for when Dad no longer owns the crown. Besides, you learn more about foreign culture up close and personal. Now if you'll excuse me," He started to remove his onesie. "I need to freshen up."

"I will go and prepare you a meal, milord."

"No, I'll prepare my own quick breakfast." The sounds of someone showering resounded through the home. "It's best for me to understand those of a lesser standing if I blend in. That means having to pull my own load"

"As you wish, sire." The bunny girl felt something vibrating in her pocket. Taking out her scroll, she read a message from her mother.

"Well, as much as I would like to see you off, me and Valkenhayn must get going. My tutor has arrived, and I wish not to be late. Come, Valkenhayn. Fare thee well, brother."  
"Yeah, yeah, see ya later sis." With that, both of their bodies glowed a bright white before disappearing from the room. Soon after, the sound of running water ceased, and out stepped one lonely Jaune Arc. As he dried his wings and toweled off his head, he glanced at the clock. It read 7:50 a.m. "Two hours until the Bullhead leaves, huh? Better just have a bowl of Pumpkin Pete's."

* * *

Jaune walked down the streets of Vale, lugging his cases behind him. He was dressed in blue jeans, a white hoodie with a blue inside, and a single, metal, chestplate. His wings were expertly folded over his body, making them blend in with his hoodie, while Crocea Mors was strapped to his waist. He was whistling a rather jaunty tune as he made his way over to the airship terminal. Keeping up with the Happy-go-lucky act, Jaune walked up to the lady manning the terminal. As he attempted to speak with the lady, he saw a Bullhead leave. With his enhanced eyesight, he could clearly make out several people his age riding it.

"Hey, miss, is that the ship headed for Beacon?"

"Why, yes." His smile faltered for a second.

"… Crap! Missed it!" Without delay, he unfolded his wings, surprising those there. With a bit of effort, he managed to lift both himself and his luggage into the air. From there, he launched himself after the airship with a comical cry of "WAIT FOR MEEE!"

* * *

"I packed these bags a bit too much, I can't catch up to the Bullhead! Well, lucky for me, it's already landed and unloading." As he approached the landing pad, Jaune saw several people walking around, talking to their friends and peers. He could see faculty walking around, guiding students from one place to another. He could even make out a giant crater next to three young ladies… wait what?

"That's definitely odd, and wait, is that…?" Using his Faunus vision, he spied a person with flawlessly pale skin, elegantly combed alabaster hair, and beautiful blue eyes. He could see her graceful and petite figure, and he could see amazing elegance in every way she walked. He thought of one thing at that moment. "The daughter of the bastard. Might as well introduce myself to her."

As he came in for a landing, he could barely make out a voice saying something about the Schnee Corp.'s questionable labor forces. Clearing his voice, he spoke loud enough so that all three could hear him. "Hey, we playing 'Rile up the Schnee?' Let me have a turn!" Swooping down, he dropped off his luggage so that the wheels on the suitcases would touch the ground, propelling them into the ivory teen. Having a laugh at her expense, he allowed himself to slowly float to the ground in front of the trio, one amused, one confused, one indignant, and gave them a gentleman's bow. The first one to react was the person he just bowled over with his luggage.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR YOU FAUNUS RUFFIAN!?" He grinned wider.

"Like I said, I thought we were having a fun game of 'Rile up the Schnee'. Right," He turned to his right to see a girl wearing a red hood. "Red Riding Hood? Right," he turned to his left to see a girl wearing a black bow. His instincts told him that she wasn't human, but a fellow Faunus- he just didn't know what kind. Though, she did kinda look like a cat. "Neko?" Little Red Riding Hood just waved her arms and backed away, as if to say she was innocent. Meanwhile, the cat (?) Faunus gave him an inquisitive, if amused, stare.

"'Rile up the Schnee?' What type of LUDICROUS GAME IS THAT?!"

"One I just made up to poke fun at you and your heritage." He could see her falter for a second there. "But don't worry, whatever that icy prick has done, it's on him alone, not the rest of his family." He smiled at her taken-aback look, as well as the highly interested look he was getting from Neko. He took a glance at Red and saw that she was still highly confused. "So, I'm willing to apologize for hitting you with my heavy-ass luggage and for poking fun at your heritage IF you apologize to…"

He turned around to face the black-and-red duo. "Sorry, birds don't really have the best ears on Remnant. 'Cept owls, but I'm part eagle and I'm also going off track here. Anyways, sure, I could hear the sounds of an argument related to what I assume was that accident over there," He pointed to the massive crater. "But I couldn't really pinpoint who it was you were scolding for said accident, Miss Schnee." Red spoke up for the first time since Jaune entered the fray.

"Erm, h-hi! I'm Ruby! I-I was kinda the one who sneezed and, y'know, set off the explosion. B-but that was because she was waving the vial around and spreading it in the air while I was trying to apologize to her for bumping into her!" The winged teen smiled at this.

"See? She's not really at fault here. Now, we'll both apologize for bumping you, while me and Black-"

"Blake."

"Blake say sorry for subtly insulting your family name. That is, AFTER you say sorry for scolding Little Red. And for doing something that could make an explosion happen. And for subtly insulting the Faunus by calling me a 'Faunus ruffian.' Sooo, what do you say?" She gave him another indignant glare. Eventually, she relented, and crossed her arms over her chest with a huff.

"Fine! Ruby was, it? I, Weiss Schnee, am… sorry for scolding you for bumping into me, and scolding you for the explosion I helped set cause. I also apologize to you…?"

"Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, chicks dig it."

"…Right. I also apologize to you, Jaune, for, as you put it, 'subtly insulting your Faunus heritage.'"

"Your cry of sorry is accepted. Now then, Ruby and I are sorry for bumping into you. Right, Red?" The girl with the hood looked much more cheery now.

"Yup!"

"And we're sorry too for insulting the Schnee family and Corporation. Right, Blake?" She simply nodded her head. Weiss turned around, walking toward the massive Academy.

"Apology accepted. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to make my way to the amphitheater." She turned on her heel and walked away.

"'Kay, see ya later!"

"Bye, Snowpea!" At this, Weiss stiffened. Instead of turning around like Jaune thought, she just marched onward. "Well, that was cold." Ruby turned around to thank both him and Blake, but she saw that only the former was still around. "She sneaked off before Snowpea turned on her heel and walked away. Well then, now that we're alone, how about we learn a bit more about each other as we have a nice walk on our way to the amphitheater?"

"Sure, I'd like that." The two started along the trail, following the path Weiss took. "Do you mind if I see the wings on your back?"

"Sure, why not?" He stopped walking for a moment. "Stand back." As Ruby stood away, Jaune unfolded his complete wingspan. Meanwhile, Ruby's eyes were sparkling like gold. Slowly, she crept forward, hands out in front of her. As she got near them, she stopped. Slowly, she turned her head towards the blonde. "Haha, go ahead. Careful, though, I don't wanna lose a few feathers." Nodding her head, she inched closer to his outstretched wing.

She made contact with the wing, and was astounded by the fluffy feel of the feathers. She continued to feel it, from the soft and fluffy feathers to the firm muscles and bone that supported the wing. As she felt it, she started to notice some other things, too, such as the nice smell it was giving off.

"It smells so nice! And it's so fluffy."  
"Yeah, I like to care for them. Grooming my wings just feels good to me."

"Y'know, I've never seen, or even heard of Faunus with wings."

"That's expected. Faunus that can fly are a rare breed, just like Crocea Mors." She stopped, and looked at him in confusion.

"Crocea Mors?"

"My sword and shield." Folding his wings in, he took out his weapons. One was a kite shield, polished to a T. The white shield glowed in the light of the sun, the twin crescents shining like gold. The other was a brilliant long sword, with an azure hilt and bronze guard. Ruby stared at them in awe, her reflection clearly visible on the flat of the blade.

"They look so cool! What do they do, what do they do?" Jaune chuckled.

"The shield can become a sheath." Ruby moved her hands in a 'go on' gesture. "That's it, really." She deflated at this. "That, and the fact that it's been in my fmily for two hundred years and hasn't rusted, cracked, broke, or even been scratched. This thing is a trooper!" This made Ruby smile again.

"Okay, that may be cool, but that's nothing compared to my baby, Crescent Rose!" She unfolded her massive red scyther-rifle. They continued their walk, the entire rest of the trip consisting of Ruby gushing over her weapon.

* * *

 **A/N: Well, there it is. Throw all your criticisms at me through the use of a PM or review- I need those to help make the story better.**

 **Now then, adieu!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Here with the second chapter of my newest work. Let's see last chapter's reviews:**

 **Mendacium: Sorry, lol, not telling. Wait and see!**

 **ZenithTempest: Glad this checks for you, and nice idea with a semblance. I don't think there's anything else that could suit our protagonist more. And don't worry, Jaune won't be too OOC. He's gonna be more of a jokester, for sure, but he's still the nice guy everyone loves. In a platonic way. Speaking of which, not gonna reveal who's being shipped with who.**

 **Well, on to the story.**

* * *

"Hey, Ruby," The pair stopped before the huge doors that led into Beacon's amphitheater. The reaper in question turned to her Faunus friend.

"Yeah?" Jaune pointed to the white wings folded over his body, blending in with his white hoodie.

"Do you think you can keep these a secret, at least until after initiation?" She sent him a questioning glance. "I like dramatic reveals." She nodded in understanding. They turned forward, facing the large crowd ahead of them. Taking a bow, Jaune gestured towards the open area. "Ladies first." Ruby giggled into her palm.

"What a gentleman." She said in a rather posh accent. As soon as they stepped in, they heard a voice call out to them.

"Ruby! Over here! I saved you a spot!" Jaune looked towards the source.

It was another blonde, only this time it was a she. Her wavy, golden locks went down to her waist, meeting up with a brown belt and short-shorts. Her tan vest was unbuttoned at the top, allowing Jaune a wonderful view of her cleavage.

The eagle Faunus followed Ruby, each step having a small amount of swagger in it. As they neared her, though, Ruby suddenly slapped her sister in the cheek. "Hey! Ruby, what was that for?"

"That, Yang, was for ditching me, your little sister! Did you know I exploded in the courtyard?"

"Wow, rough day already little sis?"

"Actually," Jaune's drawled in, "she literally exploded a sizable crater in front of the school." Yang turned her head to him. She pointed her thumb in his direction, and was about to ask something when she was interrupted by Ruby, who was going on a rant on the events that led up to her explosion. As she did, she caught the attention of a certain heiress.

"Tch, you again." Surprised by Weiss's sudden intrusion, Ruby awkwardly turned around to face her.

"H-hey, Weiss. H-how's it goin?" The Schnee turned, giving a thoughtful look towards the skies.

"It was going pretty well," Then, she turned her head towards Ruby with a face that screamed dislike. "Until I saw you again." Before it could escalate further, Jaune edged his way in between them, hands up in a defensive gesture.

"Weiss Schnee, Ruby Rose, I thought we agreed to say sorry to each other! What ever happened before should be water under the bridge." Tired of being left out, Yang chimed in.

"Okay, it sounds like you two got off to a rough start. How about we start over, and try to be friends?" Ruby nodded towards her sister.

"Alright. Hello Weiss, I'm Ruby. Wanna hit Vale? Y'know, hang out?" Weiss stared at her before contorting her lips into a dry smile.

"Oh, sure! We can buy some books, go to a salon, and talk about boys like the tall, pale, ass standing right next to me?" She said all this with clear sarcasm, making both blondes frown. Of course, Jaune was also frowning about her calling him an ass. Upon seeing the genuinely excited smile on Ruby's face, though, he couldn't help but facepalm.

"Really?" Weiss gave her a very deadpan stare at this.

"…No." As this was going on, Jaune's eyes narrowed. Okay, they had already apologized to this girl for how rude they were before. This time, she's verbally assaulting them- they hadn't even done anything wrong!

 _I've seen enough of this flying over the back-alleys of Falconia. She needs punishment. But a minor offense begets a minor sentence. What should I do? … Ah, that should work nicely, what with her being slightly distracted. After all, stuck-up people like her hate losing face._ His face took on a small visage of concentration. Suddenly, a violent updraft appeared from underneath Weiss, showing her sky-blue panties to the world. Caught off guard and horribly shocked, she couldn't even instinctively tried to put down her combat skirt if she tried. Well, for the first two seconds afterwards.

As she frantically waved her hands around, trying to stop her skirt from going upwards anymore than it has to, the wind stopped. From the loudspeakers came a light cough. All eyes turned their attention from the flustered heiress to the stage. On it was a woman with a riding crop and a man clad in green. Professor Glynda Goodwitch and Headmaster Ozpin.

"I'll make this brief…"

* * *

Later, when night had already come, students were settling down in the ballroom. Several were still inside the showers. Outside stood a lone figure. His broad chest was grand. His huge muscles were majestic. And his glorious silver moustache was extremely manly. The figure was none other than the magnificent, the mighty, the lady-killer Peter Port!

As he stood guard outside the men's communal bathroom, Jaune Arc approached the scene, carrying a bottle of… something, a baggy white tee, and blue trousers. Peter eyed the lad carefully. It seems as though he didn't shower yet- not really a cause of alarm. However, instead of entering, Jaune placed himself on the wall opposite. Before he could say anything, the lad answered for him.

"I'm not really good at dealing with other guys my age. I'll wait until the last one's out." The old hunter just smiled and nodded.

"Understandable. Ah, the trials of youth! Just watching students like you walking through these halls remind me of a time long gone. Those were the days! Oh, if you wouldn't mind me asking, what exactly is in that bottle you have there?"

"For these." He slowly, and carefully, unfolded his wings. The teacher was slightly confused- had those wings come out of his hoodie? Still, he understood the situation, or at least he thought he did.

"Ah, so that's the cause of your concern. You're worried your peers will treat you harshly."

"What? No, they're not the reason I don't want to enter, although they're part of it. I have another, more personal reason not to go where a group of naked guys are gathering." Port raised a sublime eyebrow.

"What interesting wording. Could you perhaps be…" Before he could finish, a group of guys exited the showers. Some were chatting loudly, but most were silent.

As the mob dispersed, Jaune entered the showers. Before he went further inside, he stopped, and turned to Port's side.

"I'm a B." He said this to him, before entering the showers.

"Ah, the raging hormones of youth!" The professor put his mouth closer to the showers. "Can you hear me, lad?"

"Yeah!" He shouted from within the showers.

"Shall I regale you with an amazing tale from my younger years? One related to your plight?"

"… Why not?"

* * *

 _Never again,_ Jaune thought to himself as he prepped himself for sleep, _never again will I ask him to tell me a story. I'd rather drown myself._

As the lad walked around the sleeping area, looking for a place to sleep, he heard an overly cheery voice yell out 'Hello!'. Turning his head to the source of the noise, he caught sight of Ruby, her sister, and Blake. Remembering how he didn't introduce himself yet to the blonde bombshell, he strode over to their group. As he got closer, he listened in on their conversation. When he was in talking distance, Blake had just finished saying something negative about the real world.

"Well, that's why we're here." His interrupting voice somewhat startled the two sisters, but not so much the other Faunus. He continued on with what he was saying. "We're here to make things better." Ruby pouted.

"Jaune! You stole my line!"

"Sorry about that, my bad." He turned to face the older sibling. "We never really got to introduce ourselves, did we? Name's Jaune Arc; short, sweet, rolls of the tongue, chicks dig it." Using his left hand, he brushed back his hair and adopted what he thought to be a suave smile. The trio looked at him with disbelief in their faces. After one or two seconds, though, the whole group started to laugh, Jaune included. The older sister wiped tears from her eyes.

"Hahahahaha! Ooh man, you need to work on your lines, ladykiller."

"Hahaha, yeah, I realize that." She held her hand out to him.

"Well, I'm Yang Xiao Long, Ruby's older sister."

"And I'm Ruby's friend." Yang turned to face her sister.

"YOU MADE A FRIEND! I'm so proud of you!" She attempted to hug her sister. However, Ruby's embarrassment caused it to transform from a hug into a brawl between the two siblings. Annoyed by the constant noise, a certain heiress took the scene.

"What's with all the noise? Some of us are trying to sleep here!" When she saw who it was, she couldn't hide her displeasure. Neither could Yang.

"YOU AGAIN?!"

"Shh, guys, she's right, everybody's sleeping!"

"Oh, so now you're on my side?"

"AHEM!" The bickering trio turned to see the blonde Faunus. "You do realize, Weiss Schnee, that you are only adding to the increasing noise level?"

"Well, they-"

"AND you must realize that you're only drawing attention towards yourself, right?" Looking around, she realized he was right. All around them, people were staring at the raucous crowd. Face going red, Weiss made her way back to her bed, the two sisters falling suit. The only two left in that corner was the cat and the bird. "Well, I think I'll go out and stretch a little before I go to sleep. G'night, Blake." As she simply nodded, he looked back out towards the crowd. "Night Ruby!"

"Night Jaune!"

"Night Yang!"

"G'night!"

"Night, Snowpea!"

"SHUT UP AND GO TO SLEEP!"

* * *

He was on the rooftop, enjoying the night air. His wings were out on full display, him having stretched them out earlier. His eyes were transfixed upon the moon, its shattered form mesmerizing him. He was at ease. He suddenly called out. "Nice night, right, catgirl?"

He turned around to see Blake, clad in the black yukata he had seen on her before. "You are a cat Faunus, right? I can't really see what's behind your bow." She sighed, before complying and removing her bow. Two fluffy cat ears were exposed to the night air. "Aww, those are too cute and fluffy to hide behind a ribbon." She looked at him unimpressed.

"Aren't you also hiding those wings of yours? Completely folding your wings against your white shirts seems like hiding to me." The blonde gestured to his wings.

"Can you not see how big my wingspan is? I can't walk around like this. And the halls of Beacon aren't spacious enough for me to fly around in. Plus, not completely retracting my wings, like all those pictures of angels you see on the Net, just feels weird to me. It's like asking you why you shouldn't just leave your ears flat on your head all the time."

"Fair point." He looked directly into those amber eyes, and saw it. A lifetime of despair, of anger and envy. Fear and bloodshed, vengeance and agony, escape and worry, they all screamed at him through those eyes. He shifted his eyes so they wouldn't look exactly at their golden counterparts.

"You're an ex-White Fang member, aren't you?" She eyed him warily.

"How do you know that?" He held out his hand, two of his fingers splayed.

"Two things. One: have you ever heard the phrase 'The eyes are the windows into the soul'?" She gave him a pointed look that said, 'And?'. "But that probably wouldn't help me, not unless I've," _Falconia has,_ "Helped a few escapees in the past."

"That's dangerous!"

"It's hard to catch a bird, y'know? Anyway, what's YOUR reason to join me up here tonight? It can't be because you wanted to spend time cat-erwauling at the moon." She rolled her eyes and scoffed.

"I wanted to ask you a couple questions."

"Duh."

"The voice can tell stories of it's own, small changes of pitch and tone that can help discern an individual's mood and past. There are two interesting ones about you I'd like to discuss."

"Go ahead, shoot."

"First of all, every time you talk, there's a peculiar tone coming from you. It's minute, but when I hear it, it sounds almost… posh, regal even."

 _Think of a lie, quick!_ He spread his arms out wide and grinned. "Well, what's wrong with wanting to sound high-class?" She raised her eyebrow slightly at that. _Not falling for it. Let's change topics._ "What's the second thing?"

"Earlier, when you were talking to Weiss about her family lineage, her father, a small part of your voice held this dark, vengeful tone to it." Jaune stiffened. "What exactly-"

"STOP!" He turned away from her, and stared back at the moon. "I refuse to talk anymore. Please, just go back to sleep. Let me gaze at the moon some more." Worried about him, Blake took one step closer.

Jaune whipped his head around, looking her in the eye. His face was emotionless, but his eyes gleamed in the night. As blue and yellow orbs met, some sort of understanding was formed. Sighing, Blake turned around, heading back into the building.

Using his senses, Jaune made sure that she was gone, and that there was no one else around. Reaching into his pocket, he took out a personalized scroll. Opening it, he dialed a number, and waited for the person he was calling to pick up. He heard a click, and a voice.

" _Hello?"_

"Hey, dad. Are you busy right now?"

" _Jaune, I'm doing fine. And no, I have no obligations at the moment but to speak with my only son. I assume you've arrived at Beacon already?"_

"Yup, and I'm about to sleep soon. Initiation's tomorrow."

" _Initiation? My my, you must have some stress on your hands. Let's alleviate that. Have you made any friends so far?"_

"I wouldn't consider her a friend, I doubt we're close enough, but her name's Ruby Rose."

" _A girl, hmm?"_

"N-not like that, dad! But she does know about my wings."

" _Well, that's acceptable. Remember, until you trust her enough, don't reveal who you are. Let her treat you normally."_

"That shouldn't be too hard."

" _Anyone else?"_

"Let's see, there's her sister, Yang. She doesn't know I'm a Faunus, though. Umm, there are two others who know I'm a Faunus. One's an ex-White Fang, and the other is a Schnee."

"… _I feel very worried right now."_

"Yeah, I know how you feel. But at least, she doesn't seem as cold as ice."

" _Even so, be careful around her. She may have some of her father's ideals."_

"I will dad, I will."

" _Hmph. It's getting late, son. You should rest up for your initiation tomorrow."_

"Alright, alright. Goodnight, father."

" _Good night son."_ He ended the call, and looked up once more at the moon. Folding his wings onto his body, he walked back into the building, back into the ballroom, and slept.

* * *

 **A/N: Well, there goes another mediocre chapter. Anyone care to guess Jaune's semblance? Not you, though, Zenith, you already know what it is.**

 **Now then, critique me through your reviews and PMs. It helps refine the story.**

 **I bid you all adieu.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Yo, another chapter's out.**

 **duskrider, hirshja, BiOFrOsT: Aww, was that too easy?**

 **desdelor97: Glad ya liked it!**

 **Without any further interruptions, let's get started.**

* * *

"GOOOOOD MOOOOOOORRRNING REENNYYYYY!" The high pitched, loud as SH*T scream reverberated through the ballroom, rudely waking the occupants. This was even worse for any Faunus sleeping, as their enhanced senses made it worse for them. Such as one blonde Faunus, who was roosting up in the rafters.

"Oh dear merciful god no!" The shock from it almost made him fall off the beam he was sleeping on, the key word being almost. Catching himself with one arm, he turned his head around to see a ginger-haired girl conversing with an oriental-looking boy. He saw how she noticed everyone was looking at her, and he saw the sheepish smile she gave to them while saying sorry.

He watched the duo as they exited the ballroom, soon followed by others. His eyes saw them carrying towels and toothbrushes, some spray-on deodorant for the guys to use. "Maybe I should freshen up myself." He released his grip on the wood, and sent aura to his fingertips, toes, and knee. Landing on the ground with a slight thud, he realized he forgot his morning essentials back above him.

"Time for some early morning exercise." Taking a runner's start, he ran towards a wall near his sleeping area. He angled himself so that he wouldn't run directly at the wall, but almost parallel with it. Putting aura in his hands and feet, he jumped onto the wall, and started to wall-run on it. As he got close to a corner, with another wall, he jumped, angling himself so that he could wall-run on the other wall. He leapt off it, aiming for a low-hanging beam. Grasping it, he allowed momentum to make him swing. He let loose, allowing him to get up to where he left his stuff.

Grabbing it, he did another drop like he did before, landing relatively softly on the ground. Hearing some clapping behind him, he saw the two sisters, Ruby and Yang. He waved his hand, a small grin on his face. "Yo, g'morning."

"Good morning!" Came the cheery reply of the younger sibling, Ruby, as she held up a toothbrush, toothpaste, and towels.

"Mornin'. Nice show." Came Yang's sleepy reply as she held their change of clothes and several hair-care products.

"Yeah, learned it from a friend named Faith." Jaune hiked his thumb towards the door leading to the bathrooms, with a line of female students starting to become visible. "Anyway, you better get there before the line grows longer." He stared at Yang's messy, blonde mane. "Especially with hair like that." Ruby looked behind him, and saw that what he said was indeed true. But she also saw an emerging line filled with male students.

"Shouldn't you be doing the same thing, Jaune? Look at that line." He turned around, and eyed it for a second. Sighing, he put his stuff down, and headed for another door.

"Nah, I'm not too comfortable with public baths and all. I'll eat first, and shower later when everyone else is gone." As he walked through the doorway, he turned his head, and waved at the two sisters before he walked through it.

* * *

"Ahh, nothing like baked salmon to start my day!" Taking in the deep scent of the delicacy, his fork pierced the twenty-four ounce serving before him. Gingerly, Jaune cut off a clean piece of salmon. As he brought it to his mouth, he slowly started salivating. When he was about o bite down, however, a familiar voice started coming closer.

"Are you going to share?" Came a playful voice.

"Y'know the food's free for today, right Blake?" He turned around, and saw the cat approach him. He saw the plate on her hands, and the dish on it. "I guess that explains the playful undertone."

"Don't be so worked up." She took a seat next to him, and both started eating. They were just there, enjoying the relative silence around them. As soon as they saw the overly cheery ginger-haired girl skip over to their table while carrying several stacks of pancakes, however, they knew it was going to end.

"Oh hey an open seat! Can me and my friend Renny sit there? Please please please please pleeeeeeaaase?" The orient teenager next to her, carrying a simple plate of bacon and eggs, looked at them with apologizing eyes.

"Err…" The cat and bird looked at each other. "Sure, why not?" Came the avian's answer. The duo promptly sit down, and the ginger was about to devour the stack in front of her before Jaune stopped her. "Woah, wait a minute girl. Imma go get something quick, please wait here." As he left, both girls looked at each other in confusion.

"What was that about?"

"You're asking me? I only met him yesterday."

"So anyway, hi I'm Nora! I…" Ren tuned out his friend in favor of watching the blonde that left the table. He watched curiously as he waltzed up to the buffet table, grabbed several plates and… Oh.

 _So that's his plan. I wonder if he's up to snuff?_

"I'm back!" The girls broke from their conversation to stare at Jaune, who was carrying several platefuls of baked salmon. Putting them down, the food was almost enough to match Nora's huge stacks of pancakes. Jaune slammed both palms onto the top of the table, and stared Nora in the face, a smirk on his face.

The Valkyrie understood his message, and stared back with equal ferocity. The tension between the two was enough to cause a small, cartoonish yellow spark to fly between them. Either that, or one of their semblances. Finishing his food, Ren got up, and stood between the two competitors. Blake, along with some other nearby students, moved around to get better seating.

Ruby and Yang, having just finished freshening up, walked into the cafeteria to get their breakfast. The sight that greeted them, however, was their new friend staring down a ginger girl, with lots of food around them. Between them stood an oriental guy, who took out a whistle from his back pocket. Jaune and the ginger sat down as the orient put the whistle in his mouth.

 _PHWEET!_

"Begin!"

* * *

"For a being a lightweight, ladykiller, you sure can eat a lot!" It was after their breakfast, and after Jaune's shower. The Faunus was wearing a white tee underneath a white leather jacket with the Arc crest on the back, wings folded over his body0- as usual. Alongside this, he was wearing light gray slacks and combat boots, along with black, fingerless gloves. For armor, he simply had a light chestplate, elbow guards, and knee guards

The trio of two blondes and a redhead were on their way to the locker rooms to collect their gear for today's initiation test.

"I have a high metabolism. But damn, that Valkyrie girl didn't look even half full. I'm practically stuffed!"

"Seriously! I couldn't have thought it, Nor-a would I've believed it!" Her face met a dropkick from Ruby's boots.

"Dammit Yang! I'm almost regretting letting you be on my team." Jaune saw Yang stiffen at that. Slowly, she turned her head and gave her sister a sheepish smile.

"Well, ya see, about that…" Ruby looked at her with wide-eyed innocence. "Maybe you could ask someone else to be on your team?" Ruby stopped, and turned to her sister, giving her the most sickly-sweet smile Jaune's ever seen.

"…What?" Yang raised her hands defensively.

"Look, we're not the only ones going through Initiation today!" Jaune chimed in.

"Example, me." Yang gestured to Jaune.

"Yeah, just like Jaune! And, if you want to grow up, then you need to meet new people and make friends." The reaper pouted, puffed her cheeks, and stomped her foot on the ground.

"I don't need to meet new people! I already have you, I have Jaune, and I have Crescent Rose! Besides, what does meeting new people have to do with fighting anyway?" Jaune put his hand on top of Ruby's head, and bent himself down to look her in the eye.

"Teams, Ruby. You can't make teams to fight with unless you meet new people." Jaune removed his hand, only for it to be replaced with Yang's hand.

"Yeah, sis, you need to break out of your shell!" She said as she ruffled Ruby's hair. The rose, however, was not having any of it. Like a child, she started to wave her hands around, alongside all the pouting she was doing.

"I don't need to break out of my shell! Yang, Jaune, you two are absolutely-"

* * *

"Ridiculous!" Exclaimed Jaune as he ran around, trying to find his locker. "I can't believe I lost that slip of paper, crap! I know my gear's somewhere here in the 600s, but I can't remember exactly where! Was it before or after 650? 670? 601!?" In his rush, he noticed a bit late the fact that he was heading straight towards a familiar heiress. "PARDON ME!"

"What?" Weiss, alongside another girl Jaune has never seen before, immediately got out of the way of Jaune's mad dash. "Plebian! Do you not have the manners to apologize?"

"I said 'pardon me'!" Coming to a stop, Jaune turned himself around. "But I'll still say sorry. I, Jaune Arc, am sorry, Weiss, for interrupting your conversation with…" He stared at the girl next to Weiss. Her hair was a fiery crimson, and her eyes had a fierce, emerald gleam to them. She was outfitted in bronze armor, which covered her legs, abdomen, and part of her chest. A red drapery wrapped around her skirt reached down to her combat high-heels. She was a person Jaune had never seen before. "I'm sorry again, but who are you?" A large number of red veins popped up around Weiss's forehead. The mystery girl gave him an intrigued smile.

"You're telling me that you don't know who Pyrrha Nikos is?" The girl in question waved her hand.

"Hello!" Jaune held his chin in his hand and thought for a bit.

"No, that name and face don't aren't familiar to me."

"Maybe you've heard how she graduated from the famously difficult Sanctum Academy at the top of her class, with near perfect scores?"

"I don't care for academies outside of the kingdom." _Of Falconia._ More angry red veins started popping up around Weiss's head.

"Well, you've probably heard about how she won the Mistral Regional Tournament four years in a row, setting a new record?"

"Ooh, that's impressive! Too bad I've never heard of this tournament before."

Pyrrha was starting to like this boy in front of her more and more. After being hounded by fans since she got here, meeting someone who hadn't heard of her name was a nice reprieve. It didn't hurt that the boy was rather cute, too. Maybe she could finally have a nice, meaningful friendship, one that could turn to love. It would be great to have one with a person who doesn't elevate her too high over their head. It was too bad that the heiress was rather upset at this Jaune fellow's lack of knowledge regarding her. Wait, scratch that, replace 'rather upset' with 'lividly stomping her two feet onto the ground'.

"SHE'S ON THE COVER OF EVERY PUMPKIN PETE'S MARSHMALLOW FLAKES BOX!" The blonde birdie stuck his tongue out at this one.

"Ew, I hate cereal. How would I have heard of that?" At this, the Schnee froze in place out of anger and shock that someone out there has never heard of Pyrrha. As Yang would say, she turned into a Weiss sculpture. Jaune started to poke her frozen body. "Hey, Snowpea, you okay?"

"Just leave her for a bit, I can take care of her." As for Pyrrha, she was elated that someone had never known anything about her, from the most prevalent things to the more mundane ones.

"Well, sorry for bumping into you guys in the first place. It's just, I don't remember my locker number quite well."

"Well, do you have an idea of where to start?"

"It's somewhere in the 600s, but I'm not certain where…"

"623." The Knight and Spartan turned their heads at the sound of a newcomer joining the conversation. To Jaune's slight relief, it was Blake. "Your locker number is 623, right here next to me." She gestured with her arm to the locker at her right. Jaune rushed towards it, and using his scroll opened it, revealing his sword and shield inside.

"Whew, thanks Blake." Pyrrha looked at her curiously.

"How did you know his gear was there?"

"I have my ways." A voice on the intercom interrupted any further conversation.

" _All first-year students please make your way to the Beacon Cliffs for initiation."_

"That's our cue to go. It was nice meeting you, Jaune, Blake." She took her leave, dragging the still frozen Weiss with her.

"I'll be leaving now too. Try not to hurt yourself." She started walking out the doors, but she stopped in the doorway. Turning her head, he could see a ghost of a smile on her face. "Birdbrain." Quickly, she took her leave.

"… Hey, wait a minute! Get back here!"

* * *

"… Now, are there any questions?" Jaune and the other Beacon Academy hopefuls were standing on the edge of a cliff. Their headmaster, the mysterious Ozpin, stood there, explaining the rules of initiation to them while his aide, Professor Goodwitch, stood next to him.

 _Get launched off a cliff, get a partner, get a relic, kill everything in my way. Gotcha. But I do have one question…_ "Sir, will we get parachutes or something like that?" Ozpin, Ruby, Blake and Weiss all gave him a deadpan stare at his remark.

"You're the one asking, Mr. Arc?"

"Err… never mind." He scratched his head sheepishly, wearing a nervous grin on his face. When he heard the sounds of the first person getting launched, however, he instantly got into a battle ready stance. He waited for his turn, listening as the sounds of launching came ever closer. Turning his head to the side, he could see Ruby flash him a thumbs up before she, too, was blasted away. That just left him, Ozpin, Professor Goodwitch, and the sounds of gears working beneath his feet. Then, he felt the spring pad he was on lurch.

"YAHOOHOOHOOEY!" As he soared through the sky, he fought the urge to unfold his wings and enjoy the ride. _Not the time or place for a dramatic reveal._ As Jaune reached the top of his arc, he started to look around for a landing spot. Instead, he saw something far more interesting. It was someone battling the large Grimm known as the King Taijitu. Aiming himself for the Grimm's head he readied his sword and shield. Gathering a bit of aura, he allowed the air to blow around him.

"Elfried: Down!" Using the power of wind, he shot himself downwards. As he passed the Grimm's head, he lashed out with his word, cutting off the head. Putting aura into his arms and legs, he cushioned his fall. As he straightened himself out, he looked up to see magenta eyes.

"Hello, partner. Name's Jaune Arc." The other person smiled.

"I'm Lie Ren."

* * *

 **A/N: Well, there's that. I hope you guys enjoyed. Please review, PM, and critique my work. That makes this story go round.**

 **By the way, next week I'll be going back home to the Philippines for a month or so. Knowing my past trips, around mid-July or late July my family will be staying at our old, rural house, which has no internet, so updates will be a little slow. Just a heads up.**

 **With that, I bid you adieu.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Apologies if the quality of the chapter is lower than usual. 24 hours of motion sickness and a headache from a fever aren't that good at being motivators.**

 **IWEYC: Thank you for enjoying it! I'll interpret your message to mean, don't rely too much on Microsoft Spellcheck, and obtain an editor. I'll have those for the next chapter.**

 **Warlox: Thank you for loving it. This will definitely be going on for a while.**

 **Yome (guest): I get it, it's a pun. Anyways, going by the internet (Wikipedia, yes I know it's not that reliable) interpretation of an Arc-Angel, sorry, an _Archangel_ , probably. An archangel is a chief angel, and Jaune is the heir to the throne of Falconia, which basically makes him a "chief". As for whether it happens before or after the story ends... wouldn't you like to know?**

 **Let's get started!**

* * *

"Okay, so do you know where North is?"

Ren studied his new partner, whose face he faintly remembers.

 _Right, he's that man who challenged Nora to an eating contest earlier today._ "Over there," He pointed in a direction to the left of the climbing sun. "That's an accurate estimation for where north is."

"Great, it's good to have a partner who has a sense of direction." The two started walking in the direction Ren was pointing towards, the orient leading the way. "I get lost pretty easily, tend to just go where the wind goes, unless I'm flying."

"Flying?" Jaune started to sweat lightly.

"Er, yeah, with my semblance." _Buy it, buy it, buy it…_

"Ah, of course." Behind him, Jaune did a small fist pump. "Speaking of which, that is an interesting semblance you have. Air manipulation."

"Correction, wind manipulation." Ren turned to look at him.

"Isn't that practically the same thing?" Jaune shook his head.

"There is a difference. Just like how speed-based semblances are offshoots from semblances that give the body an overall boost, wind manipulation is an offshoot from aerokinesis. An aerokinetic could do what I could do, along with more, like air pressure and things like that. I'm simply limited to gales, whirlwinds, and blades of aura-infused wind." Ren nodded his head. As the two of them continued to walk, Ren started to think more about what Jaune said about his semblance. Then he started to think more about his own semblance.

"But there are some advantages of being an offshoot. For example, due to your limits, you can be more specialized in what you do compared to a regular aerokinetic." Jaune nodded, and gave him a small grunt of affirmation. Ren continued on with his musing.

"If you were to meet a person with air manipulation on a level equal to your wind manipulation, the squalls you create will be superior to that person's squalls. This will be the same with any sort form of air current you two can both do." Jaune gave him a half-hearted 'yup'. Ren grinned.

"Truly, semblances are mysterious." _And why did I not muse of this sooner?_

"Wow, unbelievable." The orient sighed. He turned around, facing his partner, who quickly turned his face to right. It seems as though the gnawing feeling in his gut was right.

"You weren't listening to a word I said, right?" The avian merely shrugged his shoulders.

"What can I say? I was busy enjoying the view this Emerald Forest brought me." His partner looked around. _And two other views as well. Twin moons._

"Yes, this place is quite peaceful. However, it wouldn't be wise to lower your guard like that, not with all the Grimm that may be lurking around." The knight pointed ahead.

"Like the one that just has to be living in there?" The duo came to a clearing with rocky terrain, at the base of some cliffs. There, merging into the mountain, was a large cavern. As they came closer, Jaune could see markings on the side of cave. It depicted a battle between stick-figure humans and a crude drawing of a massive scorpion.

"Yes. Like the Grimm that probably lives within this cave. We should leave." As he turned around, Jaune grabbed his shoulder. Turning back around to face the cave and his partner, the Faunus reached into a small bag at his hip. From there, he pulled out several small, round, spiky things with fuses on them.

"Mini-bombs. Uncle made them for me." He stated, as if it explained anything.

"Why would you want to bring out mini-bombs?"

"Well, judging from the paintings outside this cave," He gestured to the stick figures. "There should be a Deathstalker inside. And if visiting the shifting sands and rocky outcroppings of Vacuo taught me anything," He took out a small Burn Dust Crystal. "Deathstalkers can't dig for sh*t."

"While you make a valid point, chances are there's a Grimm inside that can dig it's way out of there." Lighting the fuses, Jaune tossed them inside the cave, where they clung onto the walls and ceiling.

"We'll cross that bridge once we get there. Anyway, I advise you to run into the trees."

"Why?"

"My uncle won't do something half-assed, and that includes making mini-bombs with way more power than they should pack."

"How strong-" Before Ren could finish, the cavern burst into a huge plume of fire, the force sending the two flying. As they watched the cavern crumble, the gunslinger turned his eyes to the swordsman. "What the hell does your uncle put into those things?"

"That's what I want to know." They got up and dusted themselves off. As they were about to leave, Jaune's Faunus senses felt something stir. Something… big. And rapidly moving from the deepest parts of the cavern to the surface. "Crap, RUN!" Just as he said this, the rubble behind the two exploded outwards. They turned around, and when they saw what they were about to fight, they couldn't help but swear.

"Tengu!"

It was a frightful beast, the Tengu.

A beast with a build similar to primates, it is closely related to the Belinger species of Grimm. It differed, however, in two very noticeable ways. Unlike it's cousin, the Tengu was completely armored from head to toe. Even it's joints were protected.

The most obvious difference, however, is in looks. Unlike most Grimm, which appear similar to only a single legitimate animal, the Tengu looked like living patchwork. It's hind legs were thick and stubby, and resembled the feet of an elephant. Tengu tails were larger than their bodies, and ended with a growth that looked like the head of a Boarbatusk. Its body was well built and bulky, matching it's thick arms. At the end of the arms, there were massive pincers similar to crabs. Overall, it's body resembled that of a monkey, but the head looked just like a Mistrali goblin shark- an ugly maw, small eyes, and a log snout, hence the name Tengu.

This particular specimen looked terrible. Its normally pure white armor was tainted with soot, and was littered with cracks. The chest moved up and down with every hard pant the Tengu gave off. It was shaking, no doubt still a bit stunned from the explosion. But despite this, the eyes of the Tengu bore down on the two with a deep blood-red hue. It was angry.

"Great, just great, rather than a pissed Deathstalker we get a pissed version that's faster." The fearful Faunus cursed. His partner, however, remained calm enough.

"He may be faster than a Deathstalker, but I doubt he could move well with the damage he took from your mini-bombs. Do you have any more?" Jaune laughed nervously.

"Would you believe me if I said no?" Ren gave him a pointed look. "Still, I say we should run. When it comes down to it, enough rage and adrenaline can overcome many wounds. And I'm pretty sure what we put him through doesn't qualify as a mortal wound."

As if to prove his point right, the Tengu roared into the sky, pounding its chest vigorously as it did so. As it did, Jaune quickly used his foot and sword to throw up a lot of dust. Using his semblance, he concentrated it into a small tornado, and sent it flying towards the Grimm. While the damage from the wind was miniscule, the dust particles in it invaded the Tengu's eyes.

As it laid on the ground, trying to rub the sand from its eyes, the two partners ran away, their speed boosted by Jaune's wind. Their high-pitched screams of 'Nope!' resounded through the treetops.

"I see a clearing!" With the Tengu temporarily blinded, and their speed boost from Jaune's wind, the pair managed to put a fair amount of distance between them and the Grimm. Even so, they continued to run, just in case it caught up with them. "And there are other initiates there!" Lucky for them, Jaune's enhanced eyesight spotted a crowd forming in a clearing up ahead.

As the two broke the tree line, Ren was greeted with the warm sight of his childhood friend singing her queen song. The sight that greeted Jaune was his friend, Ruby, falling from the sky. He hurried over to her, and using his semblance, he created an updraft under Ruby to help slow her fall, allowing him to catch her with relative ease a second later. Setting the embarrassed reaper down, as he was carrying her bridal style, he was about to ask her a question when Yang tackled him away and hugged her sister.

"Ruby! Oh, thank goodness you're alright!"

"Y-Yang, stop, you're choking me!"

"Oops." She released her choking sister, who kneeled on the ground, gasping for air. "But seriously, what the hell were you doing falling from the sky like that?"

"Actually, Yang," Jaune's strained voice could be heard from the ground he was lying face-first on. "The better question is, why would you tackle your sister's first friend?"

"Hey, you're the one that almost groped my sister's chest and ass!" The young rose pouted.

"I'm 15 already, Yang. You don't have to stand up for me. Besides, I trust Jaune not to do anything."

"You've only known me for one day." The sound of gears shifted, and a massive scythe planted itself into the ground.

"That's why I have Crescent Rose!" The knight backed away slowly.

"Let's change subject here, what's up?" Yang pulled in a certain cat Faunus.

"Me and Blakey became partners!"

"Don't call me that." Jaune grinned.

"What about 'queen'?" He soon found Gambol Shroud's tip at his neck.

"Don't cross me." He looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Is it because you're a bla-"

"Yes, birdbrain."

"Okay, okay." He pushed away the blade. "Can't lighten up, huh? Well, my partner's the rather handsome oriental guy, Ren, over there." He pointed to his partner, who was currently being glomped by that girl, Nora or something. "Oh, hey, Nora and… is that Pyrrha? Yeah, that's her. They're here too, huh?"

"You'd never believe it, lady killer, they came in riding an Ursa!" He responded with a whistle.

"Guess that means they're partners then. Hey, Ruby, where's you're partner?" She looked slightly dejected at that.

"Well, if you must know, Weiss is…" She gestured behind her, expecting to see the alabaster heiress. Instead, nothing! Eyes going wide, she looked around, only to see that she lost her new partner. Meanwhile, behind her, Yang, Blake, and Jaune were watching with amused, if confused, looks. It was then that they heard a voice speaking to them from above.

"WHY WOULD YOU LEAVE ME HERE!" Whipping their heads upwards, they saw, circling above them, a giant Nevermore. At the tip of its talon, Jaune could make out a familiar white dress.

"…Ruby?"

"Yes, Yang?"

"Why were you and Weiss on a Nevermore?"

"…Surveillance? Anyways, WEISS! I SAID TO JUMP!"

"NO! I'M NOT INSANE!"

"Well, chances are, she's gonna fall." Ruby turned to the pessimistic Blake.

"No, she isn't!"

 _I can see that her hold's slipping… there._ "And she's falling. I got her." Rushing towards her growing shadow, Jaune allowed his aura to course through him. Feeling the wind blowing between his fingers, he thrust an open palm towards the sky. A large updraft blew, slowing her fall like Ruby, allowing Jaune to catch her the same way. The heiress, however, did not react like the red rose.

"Put me down this instant! I refuse to be held where your hands are so close to my rear and chest."

"If you say so." Unceremoniously, Jaune dropped her onto the ground, eliciting a 'Hey!' from the heiress. Getting up from the ground, as soon as she saw Ruby and Yang, Weiss marched over to them and started a large argument that Blake was dragged into. Jaune was, naturally, drawn in as well. From a distance, Ren, Pyrrha, and Nora viewed the altercation with slight amusement, confusion, and worry. Pyrrha voiced her opinions with slight worry.

"They do realize a Nevermore is right above them, right?"

"Wait for it," Ren whispered to her.

"But-"

"If Renny says wait for it, then we have to wait!" It didn't take long for something to happen. The Nevermore, annoyed that the humans would just ignore its fearsomeness, let out a screech. Covering their ears, Jaune and the girls looked up at the birdie.

"Oh, right, the Nevermore's here." Happy that it got their attention, the avian nightmare decided to get its revenge by launching a vast multitude of spear-like feathers. It underestimated the speed of the huntresses, however, as they all managed to get away from the flurry. One lone huntsman, however, did not move. Instead, he took out his glorious broadsword, Crocea Mors. The girls were less than impressed.

"Jaune, what are you doing? Get out of there!" He held his sword in a position above his head.

"Move it ladykiller!" He swirled his aura around him.

"You stupid plebian! Move!" A light breeze picked up behind him.

"Your wind won't be enough!" His sword started to glow green. The others watched in slow motion as the feathers started coming closer. Ruby and Weiss prepared to launch themselves at him. Yang and Blake looked on worriedly. Ren and Pyrrha, having seen his semblance before in the forest (Do not tell anyone Pyrrha was stalking him through the trees for a while!), looked on with interest, with Nora 'oohing' at his glowing sword. And the whirlwind forming around it.

" _Phoenix Caliber Cannon!"_ Swinging the sword downwards, a whirlwind was shot in the direction of the feathers. The size of it wasn't as big as the spread of the spears, meaning that only enough to protect Jaune was stopped. But the gale was strong and forceful, actually returning them to the Nevermore, which dodged out of the way.

His companions were in various states of awe. Ruby and Nora were looking at the scene with wide, sparkling eyes. Ren, Yang and Pyrrha were smirking, clearly amused. Blake was staring, mouth slightly agape. Weiss was too, until she realized that Jaune Arc was the one who humiliated her the day before. As such, she started screaming curses and swears, which everyone else ignored.

"A single Nevermore should be enough for us eight to handle. This'll be over, no sweat!" Fate had other plans. A rhythmic beating resounded through the air, followed by an inhuman scream. One that Jaune and Ren knew quite well. The oriental huntsman groaned.

"Sonuva-" A figure leapt into the air, before pounding hard onto the ground. It was the Tengu, with irritated and angry red eyes. Its eyes stared at the lone Faunus, surrounded by a field of black feathers. Pounding its fists onto the ground, it let out another screech, aimed at the winged knight.

"…Biiiitch."

* * *

 **A/N: Well, that's another mediocre chapter finished. And here's my Grimm version of Japan's tengu, intended to look weird/fearful according to whatever you guys interpret it as.**

 **Good news for me, I get to relive several old memories in my old house in San Pablo, Isabella, Philippines, next week. Bad news for you guys, the house as no Wifi. Expect 1-2 week's delay worth of chapters. Sorry.**

 **Be sure to send me your criticisms, via reviews and private messages. It helps me with the story.**

 **Paalam na.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I'm back! And with TWO chapters this round, as if that wasn't particularly expected. Also, I grabbed my older sister and my two older twin cousins to edit this. Someone tell me how good they are.**

 **Emperor-Lulu21: Your wait has been rewarded! Go Philippines!**

 **Kamencolin: Thank you, sir, for your kind words.**

 **Boggie445: Glad you like, here's your chapter five and bonus chapter six!**

 **ChaoticEmperor01: I'll drop some more info on Falconia as time passes, probably only small snippets before the big, obligatory, dramatic reveal. Also, for the pairing... you might be disappointed. Or you might not. Who am I to say?**

 **Everybody anxious for the next chapter of Jaune Arc: Monster Hun-err, Summoner: Please wait a few months, I'm still trying to get a schedule straight for when I work myself back around to A Broken Soul. PLEASE!**

 **Now, let's go!**

* * *

"Ren! Grab us a relic and let's get the hell out of here!" The gunslinger nodded, and quickly grabbed… a rook? It looked as though the relics were chess pieces… how odd. Anyways, Jaune retreated slowly, walking backwards with his shield facing the two large Grimm. He wasn't alone, though, as the two sisters took their spots beside him.

"The eight of us can take these guys, no prob!"

"Yeah!"

"As much as I'd like to, and as much as we probably could, I don't wanna. Our mission was to get those relics over there. Wait, are those chess pieces? Never

mind. As I was saying, collecting those is our mission. We will fight back as a last resort. And for that manner," He crossed his arm over his chest, resting his sword on his opposite shoulder. "We need a distraction." He started to charge up his aura again, and Crocea Mors was once more wreathed in wind. "Weiss! You got a lot of wind dust, right? Gimme some!"

"Hmph! I knew you'd be asking for my help sooner or later. Very well," She removed a green canister from Myrtenaster's cylinder, and tossed it at Jaune. He caught it with his shield arm, and stretched his arm straight out behind him. Pouring his aura into it, he watched as the Tengu became impatient. Beating its chest once more, it charged at the young hunter. As it got closer and closer, the knight waited, charging his attack. Right before the Grimm barreled into Jaune, he struck.

" _Windflower: Barrier Whirlwind!"_ Swinging both arms forward, the knight created a gigantic whirlwind, knocking back the Tengu. The group looked on with awe- it was a really wide tornado, and capable of reaching up to the Nevermore. Putting away his weapons, Jaune grabbed the two sisters. "That'll last for fifteen seconds! Back to the cliffs!"

"Right!" The group started running back into the woods, away from the two dangerous Grimm. As they were running, Ren noticed that his partner was lagging behind, and breathing heavily.

"Jaune, let me give you a helping hand!" Slowing down slightly, he allowed the Faunus to drape his arm over Ren's shoulder. "You're surprisingly really light."

"Would you believe me if I said it comes with the semblance?"

"No, I wouldn't. Are you all right? You were breathing heavily and lagging behind."

"Who, me? I was lagging behind on purpose, to watch all of your asses… y'know, making sure no one falls behind. I'm panting because those moves took a lot out of my aura, I'd say I'm now at thirty percent?"

"Tch. Let me check your reserves, I want to see how much you have." His hand glowed magenta, and he narrowed his eyes. Meanwhile, Jaune's wrist and shoulder started to glow a bright green-white color as he narrowed _his_ eyes. Both of them focused their aura, trying to harmonize with each other, which was not an easily accessible feat while running.

At last, when they broke the tree line and entered some crumbling ruins, they connected. And Ren was astounded by what he felt- a massive, surging, almost uncontrollable power.

"Renny!" Hearing Nora's voice, he was pulled out of his trance, only to find another volley of feathers headed towards him and Jaune. Dodging to the right, the martial artist looked behind to see the Nevermore closing in on them. Meanwhile, he could hear several trees get knocked over, meaning the Tengu was also catching up.

"Sorry, Ren, I've gotta focus my aura on physical attack and defense. I can't blow those away." Separating from each other, they were able to get away from one, and Jaune was able to block another one.

"By any chance, were your aura and semblance activated rather recently?"

"…Yeah."

"…When we have time, I'll help you with your aura control." They were able to catch up with the group, which was well beyond the tree line, when the Tengu once again reared its ugly head. "Nora, the Nevermore!"

"Got it Renny!" While the ginger took out a grenade launcher and started firing at the Nevermore, Ren took out his pistols and pelted the Tengu's face. Yang and Blake soon joined them, respectively, holding them back for the others to traverse the ruins. Satisfied with their distraction, the four quickly caught up with the rest of the group at a dilapidated bridge over a ravine, Pyrrha and Ruby providing covering fire. As they were crossing the bridge, however, Jaune noticed the Tengu reaching it. He also saw the Nevermore heading straight for it.

"It's gonna crash the bridge!" Stopping short of halfway, they managed to not get hit by the Grimm raven's charge. They were, however, split up- Ruby, Yang, and Weiss were stuck on some ruins in the middle of the ravine. Meanwhile, the rest were stuck on a small section of the bridge with the Tengu.

"We don't have a stable footing!"

"We need to finish it off quickly."

"We need to be careful, it has both speed and defense!" Despite Jaune's warning, Blake rushed it first, swinging her dual blades at its face. Mid-assault, the ape Grimm grabbed her head with one hand. Winding back its other hand, it sent her flying towards the ruins, leaving the other four alone to deal with it.

"We need to find a way to beat this!" Came Ren's worried voice.

"Its armor's too thick, I can't pierce it." Pyrrha stated, almost matter-of-factly.

"I say we keep hitting it till it cracks!" As usual, Nora's carefree way of fighting matched her words. But as Jaune scanned the body, he saw a flaw that Nora's idea could definitely exploit. Across the Tengu's collarbone, he could make out a faint, hairline crack.

"Pyrrha and Ren, distract it! Nora, keep hitting the chest! I'll cover you, focus on offense!" They responded by nodding their heads, though Nora added an 'okeydokey' to hers. Sheathing his sword inside his shield, Jaune and Nora charged at the ape Grimm while the other two hung back, shooting at it with their guns.

It attempted to smash Nora with an armored fist, but was intercepted by Jaune, allowing Nora to smash her hammer against the chest, adding a grenade explosion to it. The Grimm was staggered back, and Jaune and Nora used the moment to bash it together. Both humans retreated back to look at their work- the crack was now visible against the armor.

However, it was still too small for Jaune's taste, so they went at it again. Jaune blocked a strike from the tail, which Nora hopped over to bang its chest, once more launching grenade point-blank. She hopped out of the way, letting Jaune bash it on the chest, making the crack larger, but also making the bridge wobble violently.

"We're not getting anywhere fast with this! The armor is too thick and expansive to completely crack open!" While Pyrrha was not wrong, she was also not completely right. With his enhanced eyesight, Jaune could see a small hint of black along the armor- flesh. Unsheathing his sword, he rushed in and wedged his weapon in the small hole, with him hanging off it.

"Nora and Pyrrha, bring down the hammer! Ren, trip it up!" Swinging himself upwards, he let go of the hilt and dropkicked the Grimm, knocking it back. As he did this, Ren dashed behind it, kicking the Tengu at the heel. The impact from both sides made it fall onto its back, putting the exposed sword at the perfect position to be nailed in.

Predictably, the impact of it falling made the bridge tilt to one side, like a seesaw. Nora and Pyrrha took advantage of the situation, with Nora bounding off of Pyrrha shield when their side was high enough. And as the side the guys and Grimm were on rose back up, Nora slammed her hammer down with extreme force, aided by even more explosions, driving Crocea Mors right through it.

Because of the impact, the bridge leaned enough to start falling down. While the other three jumped off, Jaune was busy trying to free his sword from the rapidly decaying Grimm. Just as he got it out, however, the Tengu used the last of its strength to slam its tail into the huntsman. This made Jaune fly away from solid ground, and into the void.

* * *

"JAUNE!" The simultaneous cry of three voices attracted the attention of four girls, fighting a massive raven on the ruins. It managed to distract them at the worst time, as Weiss was about to launch Ruby towards the Nevermore. Instead, her loss of concentration made her hand slip, flinging Ruby into the drop.

"HELP!" _Shit, shit, shit! Wait a minute, my rounds!_ While she soared through the air, she maneuvered herself to shoot back onto the bridge. The Grimm, however, was not willing to let this moment go. Breaking free from the ice Weiss trapped it in, the Nevermore fired a volley of feathers in all directions. This extra distraction hampered Ruby's efforts to get back on the bridge, as well as the other's attempts at reaching her.

And it just refused to let up, making Ruby and Yang expend bullet after bullet in an attempt to dodge each feather, with Ruby also trying to stay in the air. Weiss was too busy to help her with a glyph, while Blake was too occupied to help. As Ruby slowly lost hope in making it back onto the bridge, she heard a series of clicks.

"No!" She gasped out. All she could do now was spin her scythe around, knocking away projectiles while falling.

"Ruby!" None of them could save her. Their fear and loss of hope fueled the Nevermore, increasing the amount of feathers fired, and making it impossible for any of them to help Ruby.

As she fell, a million thoughts swirled in her head. She thought about her dad, and uncle Qrow, Zwei and Patch. She thought about the day she received her cloak, the day she finished Crescent Rose version one-point-'o. She remembered when she almost caught Roman Torchwick, and when she was accepted into Beacon, and when she met her new friends. Jaune, Blake, and to an extension Weiss. The last thought she had before she closed her eyes was, _I'll see you soon, mom._

She waited for a painful thud, or an excruciating squelch from being stabbed on a rock.

They never came.

"What's this, making a face like you're dying? Little girls shouldn't make that face, y'know." Feeling herself in strong arms, she looked up to see a mop of golden hair, matched with azure eyes.

"Jaune! But how- I was falling and-" As she continued blabbering, she noticed, once again, magnificent white wings. "Oh yeah, I forgot you had those. You didn't use them often the other day." Jaune chuckled.

"Didn't need to until now. You still have some dust rounds?" She dug into the pocket of her combat skirt, and came out with a red clip. On the side, there was a black image of a crosshair.

"Just some of my normal rounds." She got an appreciative nod in return.

"They look big enough to be useful. Okay, I'm gonna fly us up there, and toss you onto the bridge. While you're up there, can you remove that Bird's eye's view?"

"Gotcha!" Moving his powerful wings, Jaune quickly ascended, stopping as soon as he was close enough to the bridge. Spinning around with the reaper in hand, he tossed her at the bridge.

Time slowed down around Ruby as she aimed Crescent Rose. Switching gears to what she called 'sniper vision', Ruby focused a little bit of aura into her right eye. The small amount of pain gained for pouring aura into a delicate spot allowed Ruby to focus completely on red against black. Slowing her breathing, and shifting herself around in the air to minimize deviation, Ruby fired three rounds before she landed. The first two bounced against the protective film coating the Nevermore's right eye. The last one, though, pierced through.

In pain from losing the right side of its vision, the massive Grimm took to the skies. It panicked, and attempted to get away from the group of huntresses. But try as it might, there would be one person it would never get away from.

"Hey fear-turkey!" In shock from hearing a familiar voice, the three members of Jaune's group looked up. Up in the sky, standing in front of the sun, was the avian knight.

"Jaune?!" Pyrrha's shocked voice shot out first.

"He can fly?" Ren's incredulous voice pierced through next.

"SO COOL!" Nora, in her always-excitable nature, spoke her mind. The Nevermore looked up above it, finding the huntsman sharing its airspace, sword poised and ready for a downward strike. A whirlwind, complete with small rocks, encased his ancestral blade. It screeched in defiance at the white knight.

"Stay out of my sky! _Wind Scar!_ " Those on the ground watched as the Nevermore rose to meet Jaune, and as Jaune descended to meet the Nevermore. As they raced to meet each other, Jaune shifted slightly to the left, into the Nevermore's blind spot. Passing by the head, Jaune gripped his blade tightly, before slamming it into the joint of its wing.

His force, combined with putting almost his entire aura into his semblance and physical attack power, barely allowed him to cut through the wing. As a matter of fact, some bits of tendon and muscle barely held the thing together. But it was enough, as that wing was now useless.

As Jaune watched the Nevermore fall from the sky, he used his wings to glide over to where Ruby and her group were. Next to them was a line of Schnee glyphs, which the members of Jaune's group were crossing. Coming in for a landing, he was greeted with a high-five from Ruby, and a punch on the shoulder from Yang. Which sent him off the cliff once more.

"Whoops."


	6. Chapter 6

"Hey, bird-boy, how come you didn't use those things earlier?"

The newly christened Team RWBY and Team JNPR were walking through the halls together, trying to find out where their dorm rooms were. Jaune, being older, wiser, and more versed in team tactics than he'd admit, was giving Ruby a lecture when Yang posed the question. Turning away from Ruby, he turned to the older sister with a curious look.

"What things? And seriously, 'bird-boy'?"

"Not gonna change it. Anyway, I meant those wings of yours… where are they anyways?"

"That's what I want to know, too." He didn't have to crane his neck to see Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha crossing their arms at him. While faint, he _could_ hear their clothes shifting. But he craned it anyway. "Not where they are right now, although that is a nice disappearing trick. I mean, why did you not use them?"

"One, they're just folded neatly and tightly over my body. Two, there was no need to." Ren quirked up an eyebrow.

"Really? Not when we were running through the forest twice?"

"We had legs for that."

"What about in our fight against the Tengu, or even the Nevermore at the clearing?" He looked at the Spartan, who posed the question.

"There was no need to use them on the Tengu. As for the clearing, I can't take on a Nevermore by myself." Ren and Pyrrha racked their minds for more times he could have used his wings as an advantage, but they found none. So they switched topics.

"Then why did you hide your wings from us?" Jaune smirked.

"Who says I was hiding anything? I just didn't show it to you guys."

"Smartass."

"It's what I do best." Arriving at a door, Ruby opened her scroll and looked at some information on it.

"Room XXX. Yup, this is our room, Team RWBY!" Even without his superior eyesight, Jaune could clearly see Weiss cringe at the mention of their team name. Catching her eye, he raised an eyebrow. Weiss's reaction was to 'hmph' and turn away. Sighing, and silently praying for Ruby's sake, he opened up his scroll.

"Well, Team JNPR, our room is XXY. And since they have XXX, then XXY must be…" Turning around, he saw the door to a dorm across the hall from RWBY's dorm. "Here." Yang yawned and stretched, with Ren and Jaune trying hard to not look at how she was putting her chest out.

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm gonna turn in for the night. I call first in the bath!"

"Yang, no! You take too long! As team leader, I order you to go last!"

"What? Ruby, You can't do this to me!" As the sisters argued, Blake and Weiss walked inside the room, said 'good night' to Team JNPR, and closed the door on Ruby and Yang. Pyrrha, with some slight pity, turned to Jaune.

"We should probably-"

"Nah, Ruby and Yang both have scrolls. They can unlock their door. Speaking of which, how 'bout we see what Team JNPR's dorm is like?" Opening the door, the team looked at their bland, new room. The pale, normal walls. The common drawers and cabinets. The bland, boring bathroom. The beds looked nice and comfy, though. Four single-person beds, two on each side of a small drawer. They weren't as drab as the rest of the room.

"Well, the rooms nice. But it seems to be… lacking something." In response to Pyrrha's statement, Ren facepalmed. He knew that a storm was coming, one that started with an N.

"DECORATIONS!" Before Nora could teleport around the room, Ren grabbed her by the wrist. No small blush was on her face.

"I think we should wait until tomorrow to decorate."

"But Renny, the walls look so boring! I even have my paint ready to use!" Pyrrha's voice popped up.

"I don't think we're allowed to paint our walls." Jaune followed in turn.

"Besides, that would take too long. And we have classes starting tomorrow. Let's just hang up whatever posters, plush toys, etcetera, we have and get some shut eye."

"Okeydokey!" Nora teleported around the room, hanging a poster of her symbol, one of the Achievemen, another of Spruce Willis, countless sloth posters, and innumerable amounts of sloth plush dolls in varying shapes and sizes. As Nora got to work, Ren took out a small mat, with the image of a lotus in the middle, and placed it on the ground. On both sides, he placed some incense around.

Satisfied, he stood back and watched his two other teammates as they decorated. Or rather, he watched Jaune decorate, as Pyrrha apparently had nothing to decorate with. He saw him hang a large, ornamental kite shield above his bed, with stylized wings on it. Afterwards, he put up four posters, two with boy bands on them and two with girl bands.

Finished with decorating, Nora called dibs on being the first to use the bath. As she did, the other three took this time to go over their schedule.

"Okay, Pyrrha, what do we have?"

"At 9:00 a.m., we have Grimm Studies with Professor Port…" Pyrrha continued listing the classes, Ren listening intently, not knowing that Jaune's mind had crashed upon hearing the name 'Port'. After this, the entire team got ready for bed, Nora and Ren sleeping next to each other. In the meantime, Pyrrha and Jaune were sleeping next to each other. More accurately, Pyrrha was sleeping. Jaune was half awake, his thoughts about tomorrow making it hard for him to sleep.

 _Dammit, dammit, dammit!_

* * *

Being the first one awake, Pyrrha did her usual early-morning routine: jogging, shadowboxing, hearty early-morning meal, and lastly a shower. During said shower, she contemplated a few things from yesterday. Namely, her team leader, Jaune Arc.

Sure, she thought about the unique relationship between Nora and Ren, or about her partner's unique personality quirks. But the thing foremost on her mind was a certain blonde knight.

There were several things about Jaune that struck her. For example, his unique semblance. It wasn't everyday that she met a person with an elemental-type semblance. Usually, she meets physical-types, like people who can increase speed or get stronger with every hit.

Next was his personality. He seemed nice, caring, and mostly carefree. But when you're a celebrity, you learn a few things. Like the old proverb says, the eyes are the windows into the soul. And as she looked into those eyes, she could see it. A hint of responsibility, a smidge of stress. She played it off as him being a team leader, but… she wasn't sure.

And being male, she could also feel some lust. But it was more subdued than what most boys have, especially considering his unique circle of acquaintances. Strangely enough, she could also feel a bit of it being directed towards Ren. Well, whatever orientation he is, he is.

Turning off the water, she dried herself off and slipped into a school uniform. Opening the door, she found herself staring into despair.

"Dear lord, Jaune, did you sleep at all last night?" He was haggard, with bags under his eyes, alongside frazzled hair and, pardon me, ruffled feathers.

"No, Pyrrha, I'm not. I had a nightmare disturb my sleep periodically." Ren, who had woken up, put his hand on Jaune's shoulder.

"Well, maybe I can help you. What was it about?"

"Our professor, Peter Port. You'll understand more once we get there. I'm going to shower." As he walked past both of them on his way into the team bathroom, they looked at each other.

 _What's so wrong with him?_ After a moment, they both shrugged their shoulders. As they waited for Jaune to get out, the two of them started talking about things, such as morning routines. It went downhill as soon as Pyrrha said something about pancakes. The mere mention of the fluffy breakfast treat awoke Nora, who demanded for a stack of them as she woke up. As Ren tried to calm her down, Jaune walked out in the Beacon school uniform.

"So cool! It looks like you have a white cape behind you!" The way his wings were folded behind his back, it almost did look like a brilliant white cape.

"Why, thank you, Nora. By the way, y'know, the shower's free."

"Ooh! I got it!" Before Ren could protest, Nora had already rushed inside the bathroom, no doubt to enjoy her sloth-themed bath toy. Giving up, he sat down on his mat in the middle of the room and lit some incense. Sitting crosslegged, he underwent his daily meditation. Out of respect, Jaune and Pyrrha sat quietly, communicating via the note app on their scrolls.

Remembering something, Ren opened his eyes, and extinguished some incense. Turning to Jaune, he patted a spot next to him on the ground. Wondering what was up, his team leader sat down next to him in the same position.

"I told you we would be doing some aura control exercises. First and foremost is meditation." As he spoke, he lit some of the incense around him. "As aura is linked to the soul, and as the soul is linked to the mind, control of one's self breeds greater aura control. Now, close your eyes and breathe." They continued this for the next thirty minutes as they waited for Nora to finish her shower. When she was done, Pyrrha, who was familiar with these types of exercises, took over for Ren.

Both of them noticed that Jaune learned fast, which was good. What was not good, however, was that Jaune's concentration broke easily, especially when they heard Weiss's voice exclaim that they were going to be late to class.

* * *

"Well he was… interesting."

"Ugh, I can see why you were fearful of his class, bird-boy." Teams JNPR and RWBY were talking amicably amongst themselves, save Weiss, who was walking ahead of them, and Ruby, who was lagging behind them. Every now and then, worried glances were shot towards the two partners, who refused to talk. Jaune spoke up first.

"We need an intervention between these two." His partner nodded.

"I agree. Hopefully they'll confide in us later on." Blake looked a bit worried.

"I hope they do it soon. Combat with Professor Goodwitch is after lunch."

"Hmm… lunch… PANCAKES! Let's go!" A chorus of affirmative sounds came from the group, even from the RW of RWBY. Weiss, being at the front, opened the doors wide to the cafeteria, showing a standard scene- students walking and talking and sitting and eating while holding lunch trays. They each fell in line, grabbed themselves a stack of food, Jaune also grabbing a good cup of coffee, and found a spot where all eight could sit together. Blake and Yang were forced to sit between the two feuding partners, who were mostly silent throughout their meal, talking to everyone else but each other. All was well, until…

"Ouch! Please, stop!" Food still in his mouth, Jaune whipped his head towards the source of the sound. Looking at the scene, he could barely stop himself from doing something irrational. At a table a bit far away, a team of human males were harassing a Faunus, a bunny girl. And to make manners worse, he's pulling her rabbit ears! Not only is that a sensitive area, but only loved ones were allowed to fondle their animalistic body parts! Biting back his anger, he set his tray down, and stood up. Pyrrha's hand reached out for his.

"Jaune! I know what you're thinking, but-"

"I won't pick a fight with them." He shook her hands off. "I'll just talk to them for a bit." He strode over, and roughly grabbed one of their shoulders. "Hey!"

"What?" The other guy turned around.

 _I think I've seen this guy before… wasn't his team name CRDL (Cardinal)?_ He was burly, for sure, but not so much. Jaune was pretty confident he could take this guy on a fight… or was that the lack of sleep talking?

"Excuse me, but what's going on here?" One of his teammates, a lanky dude with a green Mohawk, grinned.

"We're just showing this animal her place!" Jaune felt his eye twitch, and he suppressed the urge to screech

 _Great, not only are they bullying F*CKS, they're also RACIST F*CKS. Well, at least that guy with the blue hair seems a bit remorseful. Let's see if let's see if at least THEY can be reasoned with._ "Well, are you planning to stop any time soon? That looks like it's hurting her." One of them, a blonde with squinting eyes, chuckled cruelly.

"Why would we stop? We need to show what happens to dirty beasts such as this one." He could see tears forming in her eyes. Biting back the urge to do bodily harm, he angrily retorted.

"Well, how would YOU feel if someone were to pull at YOUR most sensitive part, your D*CK, with a pair of PLIERS and almost TORE them off?" The guys around him all winced, even the assholes in front of him. He nodded. "Hurts just to imagine, doesn't it? Well, that's exactly how she feels right now with your hand on her ear! So. Let. GO!" Angrily, the brawny guy let go of her, letting her scamper off. He stood up and looked Jaune in the eye.

"Hey man, what's it to ya? Me and my team were just having fun, and doing our job of enforcing the unspoken hierarchy."

"What's it to me?" As he said this, a flood of memories besieged him. Chains, plucking, whips. He felt a searing pain on the back of his neck. "What's IT to ME?!" In his anger, he let his aura flare around him. The muscles in his back loosened, displaying his amazing wingspan. He looked the f*cker in the eye, and growled.

The other guy didn't back down. Both men bumped chests, and glared at each other. Out of the blue, they were sent flying away from each other, before being stopped in midair. Upon close inspection, they were surrounded by a purple outline. Both teens looked to the open cafeteria doors at one Professor Goodwitch.

"Not even one day here in Beacon…" She gave them a slightly sadistic smile. "You two are going to show your peers exactly how combat class works." She frowned, and dropped the two. "Discard your lunch trays. You two wish to spar, do it on an empty stomach. Hurry on to the combat room. I will see you both for detention on Friday afternoon." Glaring at each other, both males followed her out the doors of the cafeteria.

Watching from the sidelines, Team RWBY and the rest of Team JNPR had only one thing to say:

"Dammit, Jaune."

* * *

 **A/N: Well, here are two mediocre chapters, I'm not sure if a couple of things were made clear here. No dropped info on Falconia yet, sadly. But we get our first extended fight scene next chapter, so that's that. I'm not sure what else to say, I mean, type. I guess a simple 'bye' is in order.**

 **Paalam na!**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: And I'm back again with lucky number seven! I apologize to Mr. BiOFrOsT for forgetting to mention you the last time I uploaded a chapter. Still, BiOFrOsT is essentially a roving reporter hungry for information that lets readers lie you all know what makes writers like me tick. Want an interview with this guy? Look'm up send a PM, and done!**

 **Boggie445: Glad to see someone with an open mind.**

 **Emperor-Lulu21: Well, aren't we a hyper one, my high royalness? Well, you get to hyperventilate and read more today!**

 **GhostHornet: Ever been smacked by a chicken or a goose before? Those wings are solid enough, I assure you. Though, seeing Jaune with metal wings would probably be cool... too bad I've already eliminated that idea from this fic. Oh well.**

 **Let's-a-go!**

* * *

"I'm gonna show you your place, Freak!" Currently, Jaune and Cardin were in the middle of the school's arena in their standard combat attire waiting for class to start. Unfortunately for them, they were taken from lunch pretty early, meaning, they had to wait ten minutes before their match can commence. It wasn't like they couldn't start now either, as Professor Goodwitch was in the room with them. She was watching, making sure they don't do anything stupid, while also enjoying her salad.

 _Well I'm not much of a vegetarian anyways, so that doesn't bother me. However…_ From his spot lying down, Jaune shifted his eyes from the calm and collected Professor to the annoying ASSF*CK standing not too far away.

"Cardin, was it? Leader of Team CRDL (Cardinal)? How about you stop tweeting for a bit and save your energy for our fight later on? I'd hate to have even more of a handicap."

"What was that, Freak?!"

"You heard me, Tweety! Or are you that much of a birdbrain that you couldn't understand what I just said? Shut up for ten minutes, jerk."

"I'll pluck those feathers one by one!" Jaune jumped up, and quickly grabbed Crocea Mors. He pointed the blade at Cardin, who held his mace in a similar fashion. They both snarled at each other.

"I. F*cking. DARE YOU!" Before either could move, they were both lifted up in a shroud of purple. They turned to face Professor Goodwitch, looking at her with faces that partially read 'oh crap' and 'bitch what the hell'.

"Mr. Arc, mind your language. An extra hour of detention for you." Cardin sniggered, earning dirty glares from both Jaune and the professor. "We will discuss your disgusting attitude toward Faunus during detention, Mr. Winchester. Anyway, I gave you two explicit instructions to sit still until your peers return from lunch. I suggest you follow them." She put both team leaders down, the two grumbling on the way. For ten minutes, the two simply kicked back, still giving each other a dirty look. Beneath that look, they were sizing each other up, looking for holes in the other person's armor, so to speak.

Soon, the doors to he arena opened, and students filtered through. Within the crowd, Jaune could see the members of teams RWBY and JNPR. Giving them a lazy wave, he could see Ruby and Nora jumping up and down, waving their arms excitedly. Yang was giving him a thumbs-up, while Ren and Pyrrha both mouthed 'good luck' to him. When he looked at Blake, he could see a fiery conviction in those amber eyes. They screamed at him, 'Don't lose! I'll share my fish with you!'. Weiss, however, just gave him a contemptuous look.

 _Well, I AM the leader, and I did just kind of picked a fight with someone on my first day. Oh well, no regrets._ As the professor took the stage, Jaune focused his sights on Glynda.

"Today is your first combat class for your stay here at Beacon. In this class, we will focus on sparring exercises. As some of you may know, the two students here with me have… gladly volunteered to show how this class will work. As you can clearly see, the arena is flat and open, similar to many tournament arenas. Matches will be fought on the raised circular platform I am currently standing on." As she talked, holo-screens emerged from the wall, displaying Jaune and Cardin's faces.

"These monitors will show your levels of aura in terms of percentage. A green bar will be shown and as you take damage the length of the bar decreases. At fifty percent aura, the bar turns yellow, and at ten, it will turn red. In every match, be it during class or not, the match will end once someone reaches the red zone. The time limit for every match is five minutes. With that, the first match of your four years will begin now." She walked out of the arena, whilst the two males got into their stances.

Cardin rushed in first, swinging his mace upwards at Jaune's head. The knight sidestepped the attack, and ducked under the follow-up swing aimed at the side of his face. Clenching his teeth tighter, Cardin slammed his mace downwards, and chained it to a golf swing, with Jaune moving away from the two strikes.

 _Like I thought, almost the same as fighting that rascal, Amy. As I predicted, his bulkier build and bigger weapon make things different. The swings are definitely wider, and stronger._ Bits of ground rose up next to him as he dodged another smash. _But he's far slower than that 'Sakura Slammer', his attacks are easily telegraphed, and…_ Ducking under another swing, Jaune retaliated by bashing his shield into Cardin's face, inflicting the first hit of the match. _It takes him longer to recover from his attacks._

Feeling a rush, Jaune transitioned into several sword slashes, each one aimed at a joint in Cardin's armor. As the bigger man staggered back, Jaune finished with a strong kick to the chest. Feeling his blood boil, Cardin threw a punch at Jaune. Jaune, despite clearly seeing the fist with his enhanced reflexes and eyesight, could barely dodge the blow. _I may be faster, but I only received one-half of the sleep I normally get last night. My body feels slightly sluggish, so dodging these faster attacks will be a sucky chore._

Cardin noticed it, too. Switching tactics, Cardin focused his attacks on faster swipes with his mace, along with ending them early. This put Jaune on the offensive, forcing him to alternate between deflecting with his shield alongside batting away strikes with his sword. He almost thought he had a break when Cardin winded up for a bigger strike. As the mace slammed onto the ground beside him, he realized that it was far from being a break.

Cardin activated his semblance, creating a powerful \shockwave from the impact of his mace on the ground. It was strong enough to send Jaune into the air, which he corrected by unfolding his wings.

"If you think staying in the air is gonna protect you from my Blast, Freak, you got another thing coming!" Slamming down again on the ground, Cardin created a wave of energy with enough force to reach up into Jaune's airspace. The wave was fast enough that, on the ground, he probably wouldn't have been able to dodge. But whenever Jaune takes to the skies, the added danger from falling or crashing at high speeds forces the knight to sharpen his senses and mind. With this mental enhancement, he easily dodged the shockwave, countering by swooping down, slashing, and flying back up again. And again. And again.

"Cheap little- stop SPAMMING!"

"Maybe when you stop spamming that shockwave of yours." Despite his best efforts, Cardin was unable to hit Jaune with either his wave or his mace whenever Jaune flew by. Glancing a bit at the screen, he saw that he was already chipped down to sixty-five percent aura, versus Jaune's seventy percent.

 _ **BITCH! This will take some aura, but it will be worth it!**_ Once again, he tried to hit Jaune with a wave, which he dodged. As he flew towards Cardin, he was surprised when the big guy launched a powerful blast of energy outwards in all direction from his body. He was caught in it, and was thrown against a wall. Feeling satisfied, Cardin looked at his aura: fifty percent. It was still better than Jaune's, who was at forty-two percent.

Peeling himself off the wall, Jaune staggered for a bit, and barely blocked Cardin's next attack. The two locked their weapons together, Cardin trying to break through Crocea Mors's blade and Jaune trying to resist. The knight had an idea, however, and allowed himself to fall backwards just as Cardin attempted a head-butt. The leader of Team CRDL lost his footing, and stumbled face-first into the wall. As his head bounced off, it was shoved back onto the wall by an unbreakable shield.

Feeling more pissed off, Cardin whipped around, swinging his mace in the process. Knowing that his semblance could screw over any shield, the Faunus deflected his attack with his sword, along with the flurry of strikes that followed after. The strikes were too strong for Jaune to just plow through with his sword alone. He needed a heavier weapon.

 _That's it!_ Right after a smash aimed at his abdomen, Jaune kicked Cardin in the chest hard enough to push him back. Taking this moment, he collapsed his shield and sheathed his sword within it.

Using the extra weight provided to him by his shield, his swings didn't just deflect Cardin's strikes. Instead, the weight behind his swings broke through Cardin's defense. And to the brute's dismay, the strikes where just as fast as before.

 _I have to thank Uncle for training me with his sword. And here I thought giving someone a 400 hundred pound, six-foot slab of metal to train with was asinine and unnecessary._ Jaune was able to deplete Cardin's aura at a relatively nice pace, bringing him down to forty percent aura. But his fatigue from the earlier hits, his hunger, and his lesser amount of sleep were taking a toll on him both physically and mentally, making him expend more aura than necessary to keep his advantage. This is made worse by the fact that, despite his extreme amount of aura, he has a hard time controlling it on a normal basis. His mental fatigue is making it worse.

It was something that helped his aura drop to thirty five percent. But despite his tired state, he was still fighting aggressively against Cardin, pushing him until his back was to a corner of the wall. His mace, while still sort of usable in constricted spots, relied on wider areas to deliver the full payload, and to stave off Crocea Mors in its heavier form. In such a tight spot, it became extremely difficult for him to deflect blows, forcing him to try blocking Jaune's strikes.

His guard remained steadfast, but that was mainly because of his Aura. While he could try to blast Jaune off him, he couldn't. His Blast worked by using motion to kick-start it, and if he was stationary like this, he had to charge his attack before he could use it. He couldn't charge aura, as he was too busy expending it on blocking with his weapon. He also routed some to his chest area, as Jaune had a habit of kicking him there.

What he hadn't expected, though, was an attack from Jaune's feathered limb.

"What the hell? I thought Faunus body parts were sensitive and crap!"

"Well, only some of them. I mean, if my wings were as sensitive as ears, it would be hard for me to fly without succumbing to the sensitivity. Prehensile tails, horns, shells, things like these that are naturally not as sensitive on other living beings, are also not sensitive on Faunus bodies."

 _ **Hah! Dumbass! I've got enough charge for a small wave. Now, you're gonna get it!**_ Jaune felt a wave pulse out from Cardin's body, a surge of energy that threw him back. Using this moment, Cardin cocked his mace back for a swing. As he did, a wing whacked him solidly on the side of the head, flinging him away from Jaune and the corner he was trapped in. With this momentary release, Jaune shifted his eyes to the monitor.

 _Great, I've been reduced to eighteen percent. Cardin's not in such a great spot either- he's at twenty, just two percent above me. But an advantage is an advantage. Better end this quick._ Rubbing his thumb a bit over the hilt, Jaune rushed toward his adversary, Crocea Mors held low to the ground. Seeing an attack from below coming at him rather quick, Cardin guarded the strike with his mace.

He didn't expect, however, for the shield that served as an outer covering to detach from the sword and smack him in the face. Not letting this go, Jaune discarded his weapon, slipped behind his foe, grabbed Cardin by the waist, and spun high into the air. As he got to the desired height, Jaune Arc somersaulted, and started to descend at a rapid pace, still spinning. Cardin would have used his Blast at this point, but was busy from all the rotations going on. The match ended as Jaune slammed Cardin headfirst into the ground, draining the bully of Aura.

As Cardin lay on the ground, groaning, Jaune gloated.

"So, how does it feel to be beaten by a hungry, sleep-deprived 'Freak', Cardin?"

Taking the stage, Professor Goodwitch used extra time to tell both combatants what they did wrong during their fight. Jaune was barely listening though, and just waited until he was able to sit with his new friends. When he was finally allowed to go up, he took a spot next to Ren and Ruby. His friends gave him a couple high-fives, thumbs-ups, a pleased glare from Weiss, and a fist to the shoulder from Yang.

"Ow, Yang that hurt!"

"Sorry. So, why didn't you use your semblance?"

"No need for anyone else to know my Ace in the hole."

"Okay." Blake turned to face him with an inquisitive look.

"Why didn't you use anything big like that izuna drop earlier in the fight?"

"… Dammit, Professor Port."

* * *

 **A/N: Now I remember what I forgot to say at the end of chapter six! Please leave a review or PM me whatever critique you have, as it makes the story better.**

 **What is next in store for our little birdie? Only I know the answer, mwahaha... also, care to take a guess as to who his uncle is?**

 **Paalam na!**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: No editors today, I'm afraid. They're busy in the Philippines, working on their English majors. I, on the other hand, am stressing out on my first Sunday back in the States, because tomorrow is the first day of school. Glad I'm posting this at noon!**

 **brandon2071: Well here you are!**

 **VV (guest): Your guess is close in one way (1), frighteningly accurate in another way (2). Also, just because he didn't have a blackmailed lackey doesn't mean something bad won't happen.**

 **GhostHornet: Yeah, some of the chickens my aunt's neighbor owned pwned me when I was a little brat... never gonna live that down. And yes, Geese (Howard) can hit pretty hard.**

 **For now, let's get started with my next mediocre chapter!**

* * *

"If I were to remember correctly, your father sent you here to improve your diplomatic skills. Yet you stand before me, here in my office, all because you failed to keep a cool head." The stoic man took a sip from his coffee mug, waiting for the Faunus in front of him to answer. It was the Friday after Jaune's match with Cardin, and after his stay in detention. Rather than being set free, he was instead herded up the Tower of Beacon, past numerous clanging gears, to have an audience with Headmaster Ozpin.

The Wizard of Beacon expected, at the least, the same, stereotypical teenage outburst: 'It wasn't my fault! He started it!' He also expected more calm and collected claims of heroism, as he was informed of Cardin's nature towards Faunus. So it was a pleasant surprise when Jaune said nothing along these lines, but something far more humble.

"Sir, I realize that it was a test I, overall, failed. Rather than being calm under pressure as many great leaders have, I allowed my anger to cloud my judgment, creating a scene that would have escalated into a brawl had Prof. Goodwitch not intervened. I also failed in handling it diplomatically, confronting him before I could think of a better way to end our argument." As he spoke, a slight regal aura formed around him. Rather than a student being scolded by a teacher, it felt more like a king listening to his royal advisor. Ozpin's expression almost broke into a smile.

 ** _Different in some ways, frightfully similar in others…_** The headmaster stood up from his seat, mug and cane in hand, and turned to face the massive window behind him, staring at the sunset. "I gave a similar speech to your classmate, Ruby Rose, an hour or so after your match. It was just your first day, Jaune. You may have failed yourself then, but there's always next week, or the week after, or the week after that. Life will always give you more chances, more 'tests' as you put it." With a sip of his mug, he turned back around to face his student. "You may leave now. Keep these words in mind, young man."

"Yes, sir." With a grin on his face, he showed himself out the door, into the elevator. As the two professors watched him leave, Glynda turned to face her superior.

"He has the same air as his father, and with a similar personality too. We may be able to make a true leader of him yet."

"Yes, indeed." As he sipped his mug, Ozpin sat on his desk, and began working again. After some time, however, he stopped, and turned to his aide. "Glynda, there was a shipment scheduled to arrive here two hours ago. I would like for you to check on it."

"If you don't mind me asking, sire, what sort of shipment was it?"

"3,000 pounds of ground coffee."

* * *

The Beacon library.

Home to thousands of books and several computers, and under the watchful eye of the strict Mrs. Yaga, this was a perfect spot for students who wish to study. Or, in the case of Jaune Arc, a quiet spot to think and reflect on what Ozpin told him. Rounding a corner formed from stacks and shelves of books, he came across a small nook.

It was odd, the little spot he stumbled upon. There was a beanbag chair colored black and purple, sitting in the center. On its right side, there was a small table with a lamp on top. The lamp had a symbol of a small flower on it, with the same shade of purple as the chair. All in all, the place looked perfect for a reclusive bookworm with an interest in dark colors.

 _I bet ten lien this place belongs to Blake._ Honing his senses, he checked to see if the supposed owner was on her way. He felt nothing. "Well, I guess as long as I'm quiet, she wouldn't mind me using it." Quietly, he slipped behind the beanbag chair, and sat on the ground behind it. Crossing his legs, he went into a meditative stance, like he has been doing every morning for the past few days, except this morning because Nora did something… Nora. He sat like this for several minutes, breathing steadily, calming his mind. Then he stopped.

"You know, I don't think I've ever seen a cat get the drop on a bird." He looked behind him, and saw Blake with a book in her hand. She sat down on the beanbag chair, ignoring the winged occupant of the room, and set about reading. Jaune Arc did not hold back on his curiosity, and peeked at the cover of the book.

"Ah, _Legends to Astound: A Compendium of Fairytales_. I enjoyed reading that back when I was still a kid. The memories of days long past…"

"You sound like an old man." He just shrugged. She felt curious herself, and wanted to know a bit more about the Faunus behind her. "Which one is your favorite story?"

"There are so many to choose from: _The Shining Blade_ , _A Broken Soul_ , _Monster Isle_ , _The Bizarre Adventures of Gold Experience_ , just to name a few. If I had to pick, it would be _Angel Island_."

"The story about the floating island?"

"No, the story about the floating island paradise. Lush forests, verdant hills, and a massive, pristine lake in the middle, all of which house amazing inhabitants. They are winged, humanoid creatures, similar in nature to Angels." Blake hummed in response.

"I can see why it's your favorite. It hits close to home."

 _You have no idea…_ "Physical characteristics aside, it also matches my own wandering lifestyle. My family and I have lived in every single region of Vale, and parts of the other kingdoms too. This is the first time I'll ever stay anywhere for an extended period of time."

"So you plan to hit the road again after your four years?"

"I'll be a hunter by then. It's in the job description."

"Fair point. Anyways, within this book…" And so, the rest of their day was filled with chatter about the stories within the book. When it was almost curfew, they both walked back to their dorms. Jaune missed the smile on Blake's face.

* * *

It had been a month. It had been one month since Initiation day, and teams RWBY and JNPR were about to go celebrate it. Nothing too fancy- just a bit of dancing at a club, then all of them sleeping in Team JBPR's dorm room for the night. Now, to deepen his bonds with his friends, he went and rode with them inside the Airship out of Beacon. The problem with this was that Jaune forgot he had motion sickness. But it wasn't all that bad, as he managed to get a cute, dark-haired oriental guy wearing a dark-green blazer, pink undershirt and slacks to rub his back for him.

 _Now then, lower…_ Says a mini-Jaune in devil attire on his left shoulder.

 _Shut up._ Says both Jaune and the angelic mini-Jaune on his right shoulder.

"From now on, I'm gonna call you vomit-boy!" She got a slap on the wrist from her partner.

"'S okay, Blake. I expected this from her anyways. Besides, her hair is in my range…"

"Why don't I just stand behind you, Weiss?" Ruby, however, was curious about this development.

"Wait, how come you have motion sickness? Don't you fly all the time?"

"Well, for some odd reason, I can't handle riding on any sort of vehicle. Like this one anime character my sister likes." Pyrhha's concerned voice rang out.

"What could we do to help?"

"OOH! OOH! Ren could make you pancakes! They always help me when I'm sick!"

"Offer appreciated, but we're not all you, Nora. Maybe some peace and quiet would help." The rest of the ride passed in comfortable silence, with the only sounds coming from Jaune's grunts and groans while Ren was rubbing his back.

 _Oh my!_

Shut up Devil-Jaune, you're not George Takei. Now then, it came to no surprise that, when the airship landed, Jaune flung himself onto the pavement. It was also not a surprise when Jaune started kissing the ground. As he did this, Yang sniggered behind him.

"Imagine if you had no wings, Vomit-boy. You'd have to ride this thing again!" This comment fueled Jaune's imagination, forcing his body to run over to the nearest garbage can. Once he finished emptying his stomach, the group made their way to a club Yang knew about. As they talked amongst themselves, Jaune took another look at everyone else's attire.

It was essentially the same for each of the girls, with skirts ending above the knees and showing off their napes and shoulders. The similarities ended there, as Yang's and surprisingly Nora's dresses were low-cut, and Ruby's dress included her infamous red riding hood, along with all of them being in their respective colors. Only Weiss's white dress was different, as it was the most conservative; it ended below the knees and hid the back and shoulders.

Like the girls, Ren and Jaune dressed similarly: blazers, collared undershirts, and slacks, plus dancing shoes and belts. And like the girls, the biggest difference was their colors; Ren wearing green and pink while Jaune wore white and yellow.

They soon stopped in front of a building of rather average size. It also looked like the rest of the buildings surrounding them: shady, run-down on the outside, with a bunch of litter surrounding them. The only distinguishing feature of the building in front of them was the headache-inducing bass thumping emitting from the establishment.

"Yang, are you sure this place is even legal?" The pugilist walked ahead of the group, stopping short of the door.

"Relax, Weiss-cream. This place is perfectly fine, especially since I visited it two months ago. No drugs or other crap like that. The only thing Junior does now that's remotely illegal is information broking." With a smile on her face, she knocked on the wooden door. A small bit of it slid away, revealing a pair of red shades. "Hello again!" Instantly, the man on the other side vanished, followed by the sounds of a door locking. The group could hear frantic screaming behind the door.

"Put up the barricades!"

"She's back! She's back!"

"Lock the doors! Don't let her in!" _THWACK!_

"Idiots, open up! If you lock it, she'll just bust it open anyways." After what sounded like a door unlocking, the wooden door opened, revealing a man quaking in his boots. He was average in build, wearing a black suit and a black fedora, with red shades and a red tie. Ruby looked at him in interest.

 _ **Should I mention what happened a month ago? Nah, Yang and Jaune might get worried. Might as well keep quiet. But he does look like one of the thugs Torchwick had with him…**_ Weiss stepped in between this guy and the rest of her group.

"Yang, you said this place was legal! Why does this man look like a henchman for one of Vale's largest crime bosses?"

"Yeah, it is legal!" She turned to the man, with a face that promised pain if he upset her. "Right?" He waved his hands up in defense.

"Yeah, yeah, we legal! Ever since youse came here two months ago and trashed the place, we've been watched by the cops while we was fixing this place up! Junior's Club is no longer for low-life thugs or mob bosses like Torchwick. Honest!" The fiery blonde calmed down.

"Good, seeing as how this is the only nearby nightclub that lets minors in." As the thug walked inside, the two teams followed him. As they came closer to the dance floor, Jaune had a question.

"Where is your boss anyway?"

"Oh, him? He got the flu. Been laying sick in bed for a few days now." As the doors to the dance floor came closer, they opened up, revealing a sea of people. Some were up, dancing. Others were sitting at booths and tables and at the counter, enjoying drinks and laughing like drunks. On a high-up platform, they could see a DJ in a bear costume with a sling around his arm.

The reactions from the group were mixed. The sisters, plus Nora, looked on excitedly. Blake and Ren looked on stoically, not really caring about it as much as their happy-go-lucky teammates. Pyrrha was apprehensive about the whole ordeal, what with how dubious the place looked. Weiss looked at the place with mild disgust.

"Ugh, this place looks deplorable! You agree, right Pyrrha?"

"Well, this _is_ a far cry from the events I've been to. But it looks… fun? What do you think, Jaune?" She turned to face her leader, only to not find him there. "Jaune? Where did he go?" The other male of the team tapped her on the shoulder, and pointed somewhere into the crowed. As if on cue, the people on the floor spread apart, showing some people in a heated dance battle. One side was a pair of twins, one crimson and one ivory. The other side was white, yellow, and pulling off some amazing breakdancing moves, even though there were wings on his back.

Seeing the Faunus knight grab the spotlight sparked something in the red, yellow, and pink girls of the group.

"Wait for me, Jaune!"  
"Wait for me, Jaune-y!"  
"Wait up, Vomit-boy!"

Weiss could not suppress a face-palm, eliciting a small giggle from Pyrrha. The other half of the group looked for seats and ordered non-alcoholic drinks for them and their companions, who were currently beating everyone else in a spectacular fashion. After all, who could compete with sparks, embers, high-speed rose petals, and flying dance moves?

* * *

 **A/N: I think I suck when it comes to relationship-growth and some social settings. I am a socially awkward teenage person, after all. Won't stop me from researching, reading, and trying.**

 **Next chapter will be a continuation of this one, focusing on what goes on in Team JNPR's room. Let's see what happens there, yes? Also, free cake to anyone who gets the references. It's ice-cream cake, too. In Neapolitan flavour. Delivered to your doorstep by a kinda cute, but sadistic, yandere-esque chick.**

 **Remember to leave a review or PM me on this... 'eh' piece of work. Paalam na!**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: I'm not sure how to feel about this one. I practically half-assed this, and I don't like when I half-ass things. If I were to put a reason on it, it's because school started, and my first week as a sophomore practically drained me. But that's not really a good enough reason, isn't it?**

 **Banshee (guest): There's a reason it won't be Ren, you'll see by the end of this chapter.**

 **Well, let's start.**

* * *

"I can't believe you four still have all this energy!" The group was walking towards the airship terminal, hoping to get in on the last flight to Beacon. And, like Weiss stated, the four people who danced for the entire time they were at Junior's still had enough energy to skip their way, or bounce off the walls in Nora's case, to Beacon. The blonde brawler turned to her icy cold acquaintance.

"Are you really that surprised at us not being tired?"

"You guys danced for THREE HOURS straight!"

"With Nora, I'm not surprised," came the voice of the jade hunter. "With her semblance, as long as she's near an outlet she has almost infinite energy.

"Don't forget paaaaancakes!" The heiress turned on the other three.

"What are your excuses?" Yang answered first.

"Well, ice-queen, martial artists like myself need way more stamina than people who use weapons."

"Same for a runner like me! I need enough juice to keep up with my semblance, you know!" After Ruby answered, Jaune hiked a thumb in his direction.

"As for me, my specialized Faunus physiology means more stamina, enough to barely keep up with Nora without using aura." Pyrrha nodded.

"It's true. Don't you remember the endurance competition Jaune and Nora had last week?"

"I was the winner, I was the winner! Jaune was the stinker!" The offended knight pointed angrily at her.

"No fair! Using up all the battery from my Scroll was cheating! And a dick move!"

"To be fair, Jaune," came the serious reply of his partner. "You did leave your Scroll and charger in a place where someone could accidentally step on it. Besides, I remember the competition was an 'anything goes' type of competition." As the knight deflated, Yang started to laugh at him.

"Too bad, vomit-boy. Speaking of which, it's time to live up to your nickname!"

"Huh?" Looking up out of his stump, Jaune could see that they already reached the airship terminal. As he watched the hatches to one slowly open, he could feel a cold sweat coming on. _I don't wanna ride the deathtrap!_ Suddenly, Devil-Jaune appeared in a puff of smoke on Jaune's shoulder.

 _Think of it this way: when you start o feel sick, one of these cute girls, or maybe even Ren, can rub your back for you. A little bit of physical contact is good enough for a bit of motion sickness, right?_ His good counterpart appeared right after.

 _Well, you do need to socialize with them a bit more, especially if you want some more interaction with humans. It's good to be with friends, every step of the way._ As Jaune felt the vibrations from the air, however, he started to have second thoughts.

"All right! Sleepover at Team JNPR's!"

"Yang, I refuse to call it by such a childish name." After returning to their dorms, all eight of them changed into their sleepwear, with the members of Team RWBY entering the now-crowded dorm of Team JNPR. Originally, the two boys in the room did protest, alongside Weiss, how unfair it would be for them to sleep alongside the six beautiful women. They were ignored, and forced to just go with the flow.

Currently, they were all sitting in a circle around the floor, as Ruby was searching for something she forgot in her dorm room. They passed the time with idle talk, and thirty minutes later, the red reaper returned, hiding her hands behind her back. "How on earth does it take you half an hour to look for something? Even without your semblance, it should take at most five minutes!"

"Sorry, Weiss. But hey, at least I got what I was looking for, right?" From behind her, she took out a glass bottle. "We can play truth or dare!" This elicited several whoops from Yang and Nora, appreciative smiles from the other three girls, and looks of doom from the two guys. Jaune quickly stood up.

"Okay, as leader of half our little circle of friends, I'd like to suggest a few ground rules. Nothing related to alcohol, nothing sexual and nothing that can result with a trip to the nurse's office, Ozpin's office, or a police interrogation room. Is that okay?" Everyone said yes, though Yang said hers with a suspicious smile, and was accompanied by the sound of flasks clinking against each other. Satisfied, both team leaders sat down. "So, ladies first?"

"What a gentleman." Using her authoritative powers, Ruby spun the bottle first. The tip landed on Yang. "So sis, truth or dare?"

"What do you think? Dare!" An evil glint appeared in Ruby's eyes.

"Let each of us dye a small section of your hair in our favorite colors."

 _Note to self: never piss off Ruby._ Yang's eyes bulged out of her sockets. She stood up, and backed away slowly, hands up in the air.

"No way, sis! Nuh-uh! Not happening at all! You can't make me! None of you will harm my precious!" In a creepy way, Yang started to stroke her hair. Ruby turned one glare towards the most hyperactive member of their two teams.

"Nora?"

"Got it!" With a flying dive, Nora tackled Yang to the ground and restrained her long enough for the group to get hair dyes from Nora's bag. With fearful effort, they each colored tiny, miniscule sections of her hair, with Ren doing it for him and Nora. With a great force, Yang managed to throw all of them off her and stood up, eyes red and head flaming.

"You guys better hope this shit washes off, or Ember Celica will find their way upside all of your heads!" Grumbling, the pissed boxer sat back down, and spun the bottle with enough force to send it flying at Ruby's head.

"Ow!" Without even a small apology, Yang watched the bottle as it slowly came to a stop on… Pyrrha.

"Cereal-Girl, truth or dare?" Pyrrha Nikos, four-time champion of the Mistral Regional Tournament, faced many fearful opponents in her life. In front of a pissed Yang Xiao-Long, however, picking dare did not look like the best option.

"Truth."

"Have you ever had any embarrassing trouble because of your semblance?" Her cheeks flushed bright red.

"W-well, when I was first trying to control it, there was a situation involving a metal… crotch guard…"

"Was it a dude?"

"Y-Yang! Only one truth at a time, please!" She didn't have to answer, anyway- her bright red face did it for her. Still trying to regain composure, the Spartan spun the bottle, which landed on the ever-hyper Valkyrie herself. "Nora, truth or dare?"

"Dare!"

 _Does no one else want to reveal something?_ "I dare you to…" Normally, Pyrrha is a nice lassie, and as such would find it slightly difficult to find a good enough dare for Nora to undergo. However, she came up with something she thought was tame enough. "… Not assault a stack of pancakes Ren will make for you and place I front of you for five minutes." … Key word being thought.

For ten seconds, Nora was able to survive without complaint. For the next thirty seconds, she wept for the pancakes in front of her. For three minutes, Ren had to restrain her from attacking the stack. As Ren was holding her back, a lightbulb lit up in her head. As the bomber stopped resisting, she went over to her bed, put her hands on it, and flipped it. Like a hinge, it opened up, revealing several packages of pancakes wrapped in foil.

"… Technically, Pyrrha, that wouldn't be cheating, seeing as how she isn't eating the pancakes I placed in front of her." As the five minutes ended, Nora closed her secret compart, and happily devoured the pancakes in a literal blink.

"My turn!" Spinning the bottle, it landed back on the red reaper. Ruby didn't need to be asked anything.

"Dare!"

"Let me paint Crescent Rose pink!" In an instant, Ruby ran out of the dorm room and back to team RWBY's dorm and locked the door, all the while screaming 'Nooo!' at the top of her lungs. Seeing as the reaper forfeited her turn, Nora spun the bottle again, with it landing on Weiss this time. "Truth or Dare, Weissy!"

"Hmph. An intellectual, such as myself, would never stoop so low as to choose the more barbaric 'dare'. I choose truth."

"You didn't have to be so wordy. Okay, so I'm like really curious about this, but is your hair naturally white?"

"Yes."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Reeeaaally?"

"Yes!" The pink bomber gave her a defiant look.

"Then prove it!" Weiss crossed her arms.

"Simple enough. Look at my eyebrows."

"Oh, no, I'mma need much more proof than that. Show me your pubes." Everyone stiffened at the words Nora spewed from her mouth, with the action being accompanied by the sound of breaking glass.

"…What?"

"Show me your pubes!" Everyone else but Nora and Yang flushed red (with the boys having blood dripping down their noses), Nora because she was legitimately serious and Yang because she was too busy laughing.

"Th-th-that is an unacceptable, completely inappropriate question! I refuse to answer it!"

"Show'em!"

"NO!" Yang stopped laughing enough to wipe the tears from her eyes.

"Sorry, Weiss-cream, but you gotta give us proof that that's a truth!"

"I DO NOT!" Nora's grin stretched to devious levels.

"Areyousure? Willyoushowthem? Areyousure? Willyoushowthem? Sure? Show? Sure? Show? Sureshowsureshowsureshow?"

"I- Yes! No! Wait, yes or no! What? No! I mean yes! I mean no! I mean, agh, ugh…" In order to protect her mental stability, temporarily shut down.

Ruby was in her dorm room, alone. Wanting to pass the time, she found a black book underneath Blake's pillow. Grabbing it, she sat down and began to read _Ninjas of Love_.

"Damn, girl. You managed to make those two forfeit in the blink of an eye! I'm jealous."

"Well, that's kinda sad… next victim!" She was stopped from spinning the bottle from Ren's outstretched hand.

"Nora, just pick me for your whatever you have planned."

"But Renny, that's no fun!"

"It's certainly better than watching everyone forfeit." Hoping to sway her longtime cru-childhood friend, Nora attempted to make the cutest, saddest pout appear on her face, one that was second only to the greatest of sloths. Having been with her for several years, however, desensitized Ren. It was a fact he proved to her when all she received in response was a raised eyebrow.

"Fiiine. Renny, I dare you to cover yourself with this shirt I made using cooked, high-class fish!" Everyone but Ren looked at Nora, then at the fish-shirt sitting right beside her.

"Where did Nora get that from?"

" _WHEN_ did Nora get that?"

"Enough talking! Sorry, Renny, but you have to wear it!" The gunslinger sighed, and began to stoically put on the shirt. Well, it didn't seem like some of the more… outrageous or dangerous things that Nora did in the past. What harm could happen? Well, for the entire time that the shirt was out, both Blake and Jaune were salivating, Jaune even more so since he wasn't trained to conceal his Faunus heritage.

After Ren finished putting it on himself, however, Jaune lost his self-control. Tackling his surprised partner, Jaune held him down, and despite Ren's disturbed flailing, started to eat the fish off of his chest.

"Sorry- _chomp!_ \- Ren, I guess- _munch!_ \- I didn't- _gulp!_ \- have as much- _bite!_ \- control over myself - _om!_ \- as I thought- _nom!_ " The girls, unlike the boys, were having a blast watching this scene unfold. Blake's nosebleed was distracting her from the fish being eaten off of Ren's chest, Pyrrha's face matched her hair even though she was looking away (but still sneaking in a few glances) and the heavy-hitters were hooting and taking a video.

"Don't stop, boys! Mamma Yang needs this show right now!"

"Sorry, Renny! A girl needs her fanservice too, y'know!"

"But I don't see why he has to eat food off of me!" Because of all the noise, a certain heiress was beginning to awaken from her stupor. She promptly passed out again after seeing what was going on.

The girls, even Pyrrha did absolutely nothing to help, and just watched until Jaune completely ate the fish-shirt. As both males threw themselves off of each other, both with red faces, Ren spun the bottle, landing on the ashamed knight. "Jaune, t-truth or dare?"

"T-truth."

"Alright, I've been wondering for some time now, but those plants on the windowsill, what are they?" Ren was referring to several plants with unique colours and shapes that Jaune had received three weeks ago from a family member.

"Ah, those. They're plants that produce special kinds of oils that I intend to use once they grow to full size in about a week." Spinning the bottle, the next victim turned out to be Blake this time.

"Truth."

 _Rats, I was planning to get one back at her for not helping Ren or me. What could I ask her?_ "What's that story you like to read when you think no one's around? _Ninjas of Love_ , right? How about you tell us what it's about." At this, the cat Faunus began to sweat nervously. But before anyone could say anything, before any witty remark could be made, Ruby slammed the door open. In her hands was a black book with red writing on the cover. Scanning the room, her eyes landed on the (even more nervous) Blake. She held up the book with one hand, and with the other pointed at it's cover.

"This is filth! FILTH!" With great accuracy, she threw the book between Blake's eyes, before stomping over to one of the beds and sitting down. Yang grabbed the book, and after skimming through it looked apprehensively at her baby sister.

"You READ this book? WHY? Why would you read smut like this!"

"It's not my fault! The only thing that made me read it in the first place was the 'Ninja' part! How was I supposed to know what it was about?" As the sisters argued over the work of literature, Blake spun the bottle, which landed once more on Jaune.

"Truth." Nervously, she asked him a question that had been on her mind.

"So, Jaune, what's your type?" This had everyone's interest.

"My type?"

"Yeah, your type. As in, the type of person you want to be with?" She was viscously attacked from behind by a smug Yang.

"Aw, look! Little kitty has a crush!"

"I don't! it's for a friend!" As Blake attempted to get out of the headlock Yang had her in, Jaune coughed into his fist.

"That depends."

"On what?"

"What gender they are." Everyone froze.

"... What?"

"Yeah. What gender they are. In case you guys haven't noticed, I'm bi. It's 2099, for crying out loud." They all just stared at each other.

"Yeah, but you never showed any signs. We all thought you were straight."

"I never use the communal washrooms. Also, you guys have seen me staring at people regardless of their gender."

"… That's true." Nora waved her hand, grabbing everyone's attention.

"Wait, so then, when you were practically biting at Ren's body…" He put his hands up into the air.

"I enjoyed it, guilty as charged." Looking at Nora's face getting darker by the second, and watching Ren scoot a little further away from him, spurred him to continue. "But I do feel guilty about it. After all, isn't he yours, Nora?" Both childhood friends turned pink at this.

"… I think we should all go to sleep now."

"Agreed." Yang was whining as everyone lined up to use Team JNPR's bathroom.

"But I'm not tired!" Blake stood behind Jaune as the winged Faunus waited until Pyrrha came out of the restroom. As she looked at him from behind, she couldn't help but frown.

 _He never answered my question…_

* * *

 **A/N: Well that's the end of that little bonding time, small or relatively no giggles to be found, depends on your sense of humour. Anyways, seriously guys, I need inputs. I need reviews and PMs. I need to know what you guys want, how you guys feel about this story, and whether you guys also thought this chapter was half-assed. So keep sending those reviews!**

 **Paalam na!**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Well, I'm back with another mediocre chapter. I'm honestly not sure how I feel about this one...**

 **NexusBladeguard: Well aren't you a nice one, you!**

 **GhostHornet & Cain(guest): See, these two get what I was feeling with the last chapter! Also Cain, you're gonna have to wait a while until I reach season two with this fic... sorry...**

 **Twilight Rift: Like with Cain(guest), you're gonna have to wait for a long while before the sails start to unfurl on this ship. At least, that's what I think you're talking about. Damn, I need a better schedule...**

 **Guest(guest) & EmperorLulu21 (currently renamed SnapDragon21): Oh, so you don't like it if Jaune's gay or bi? On a place populated with those types of fics and shippings and people like that? Well, I guess that's oka- NO IT'S NOT!**

 **tsun: Ooh, sorry, person. I was in the middle of this chapter when you gave that reply, so you probably wont get much plot today, just some exposition. I promise to continue on with the plot after this chapter... unless you don't really think of the 'Forever Fall' mini-ARC as more plot. In that case, then after the next chapter.**

 **Let's go!**

* * *

Jaune woke up rather giddy this morning. It was finally the weekend, and after a long week of being swamped with work (including several essays from Professor Oobleck on 20 pages of their textbook) he was finally free to do what he wanted. And what he wanted right now, more than anything, was to check up on his plants that bloomed on Monday morning. Still, as a team leader, duty calls- it was his turn to make breakfast.

As he finished, he smiled at his odd little garden. There were small herbs and flowers and little fruit-bearing plants spanning the length of their windowsills, which were wide and allowed ample room for his plants to grow. The plants had various colours, with petals that were a bright yellow, a vibrant purple or oddly black. There were fruits that looked red and juicy, white and dainty, blue and… misshapen (and also hard to shield from Nora). The herbs, for the most part, looked the same, with the only differences being the number and shape of the leaves.

"You seem awfully chipper this morning." He turned to face a slowly awakening Pyrrha Nikos.

"Morning, Pyrrha. I just didn't have enough time the past week to catch a break and smell the flowers." He gestured over to his quaint little garden.

"Yes, they are lovely, and they smell quite fragrant. You put quite some care into them."

"Yeah, they remind me of my little home. Sure, my family may have migrated place to place, but every now and then we stopped to rest our wings. And the place we always stopped at between trips was a quaint little cottage in the woods. Where exactly on a map, though, I can't remember." She got out of bed, and headed toward their little dining table. She viewed the contours of his body, and the smile on his face.

 _ **Well, I can't deny that his grin and overall body structure is cute. It's also a plus in my book that he didn't know who I was. Too bad, though. It seems that Blake has been watching him closely lately, and far be it from me to take another person's heart without permission. Though, I will ask,**_ "Why?"

"Birds don't really need maps to find their nesting grounds, and neither does my family. But so far, it's the only place where these things grow."

 _ **He heard me! Play it off, Nikos!**_

 _It's amazing how that last sentence was the only part that was true. And I thought I was the one supposed to lay down thick lies._

 _Be quiet, little devil._ "I remember the days we spent there as we rested our weary bodies. Dad would go out and play with us," _Time to wake up Team Sloth._ "Meanwhile, mom and my oldest sisters would go into the kitchen and make us delicious, rowan berry PANCAKES."

"WHOSAIDPANCAKES!" The roar of the pink thunder managed to stir the peaceful lotus lily lying in the bed beside her, much to his dismay.

"Jauune, whyyy?"

*chuckle* "Sorry, partner. I needed a way to get both of you up from your cursed slumber. C'mon, food's ready. Scrambled eggs and toast for two, and pancakes for Nora." He watched from the windowsill, looking at each member of his team as they ate.

"Jaune, I don't see your plate anywhere."

"I already finished my seafood omelet, my plate's in the sink." He turned his head to face the Spartan. "So, Pyrrha, no homework to be done?"

"The notes on my scroll say 'no'." He turned his head to face his partner.

"We had no itinerary for the weekend, right Ren?"

"No, we did not." He- guess what? - turned his head towards Nora.

"Do we have to get any groceries?" Jumping out of her seat, she did a quick run through of the fridge, the cupboards, her extra stash, and Ren's extra stash of pancake ingredients.

"Nope!"

"Good." With a small amount of effort, he picked up his two gardens in an impressive balancing act. "I'll be in the Beacon lab for the next few hours."

With such a wide array of students attending Beacon, and with such a huge variety of weaponry, there are bound to be students with special armaments. Some use no bullets, while some are merely for supporting others rather than being pure offence. Every now and then, however, the academy receives a student that requires certain chemicals to be used in their weapon. As such, the Beacon lab was added 3 years ago to give students a safer, more controlled environment than their dorms, the gardens, or the Emerald Forest to do their work.

"Why, Jaune?"

"Well, guys, in case you don't remember, during our truth-or-dare session with Team RWBY two weeks ago I mentioned something about making special oils from these things." An excited Nora slammed down her sixth plate.

"Ooh, ooh, I wanna come watch!"

"Sorry, Nora, but I need a quiet, focused environment to do this in. Several of these oils are dangerous, Aura or not, and I need to make them safe. And that requires peace, quiet, and for my sake some loneliness." A slightly concerned Pyrrha and Ren looked at each other.

"How about one of us come help you in the lab?" He shot them down too.

"Sorry, but I can't. One, I'm literally the only one in Beacon who can do this complicated procedure. Second, it wouldn't be fair to Nora." The girl in question just looked at her two other teammates, arms crossed, and released a low-pitched, lengthened, 'mmph-hmph'. "So, we all good?" Begrudgingly, the NPR of Team JNPR nodded. "Alright, we good. Once again, sorry guys." With that, Jaune withdrew cooly.

 _Liar, liar, you don't tell the truth. Liar! Liar! Can't nobody see-_

 _Shut up, little devil._

\- 3 ½ hours later -

Lunch in the cafeteria was always a hectic affair. No matter where on Remnant, students will be noisy, sloppy, and chaotic during this free period. Beacon, of course, was not free from this. And why would they, in a school full of impulsive teenagers with advanced abilities trying to establish an adult identity? But as they say, there's always an eye in the storm. At this moment, that eye was the rather tranquil table of Teams RWBY and JNPR. Well, tranquil for them at least.

"And so then I said, 'Now that-'"

*SLAM* "Sorry I'm late, guys." Looking away from Ruby, the group laid their eyes on Jaune, who sat next to Nora with two platefuls of tempura, calamari, and fried fish filet.

"You do realize that all that oil is bad for you, right?"

"And that's why you'd make a great team medic, Ren." Yang caught his attention.

"So, I hear you've been working on some oils. Care to let me have a try?"

"I will admit, Arc, I am curious as to what you were doing in the lab." He scoffed.

"The things I made were not beauty products. They're for a different use. Anyways, Ruby?" She looked up from her plate of cookies and milk.

"Hmm?"

"Care to spar with me?"

"Sure!" The friendly match between both team leaders had each camp buzz with excitement.

"You better watch that (admittedly fine) ass of yours, Vomit-boy, or Ruby's gonna serve it to ya!"

"Oh yeah? Jauney can beat her without sweating a drop!... Wait, can birds sweat?" Both of their heavy hitters were standing on the table, loking into each other's eyes while Ren just watched with a silent sigh. And while waving a 'Team JNPR' flag.

"This will be an interesting match." Came the voice of Team RWBY's personal ninja. _**Go Jaune!**_

"Go Jaune!" Exclaimed one redheaded Amazon.

"I think you'll find that no member of Team RWBY is a pushover, especially our namesake."

"Of course I get it, Weiss, we've all been friends for six weeks now. So let's forget about that spar for a second. Ruby, what was that story you were telling these guys about earlier?"

* * *

In the middle of the arena, a certain reaper was tapping her foot impatiently.

"Where the hell is he? He's been in the locker room for ten minutes already! Nobody takes that long to gear up!" Their friends in the stands weren't exactly being patient, either.

"Vomit-boy, the hell?"

"I worry for Jaune. He'd be disqualified by now in a tournament."

"Seriously, what is that dunce doing?" After she said this, Jaune practically ran out of the locker room.

"Sorry guys! I'm trying to test something in today's spar, and I guess I took too long to prep." Ruby waved her arms around angrily.

"You're damn right you took too long! And- wait, did you say something new?" Stars formed in her eyes. "What is it? A new weapon? Did you finally modify your old one!? Did you turn it into a gun!? A flamethrower!? A LASER SWORD!? Oh, oh, does it have anything to do with your shield that you don't have on you right now?" It was true: Jaune didn't have his shield on hand. As a matter of fact, he didn't have any of his armor on! All he had on was a black tee, jeans, sneakers, and his gloves, and all he had was his sword, alongside an odd golden belt. "IS IT YOUR BELT!?" He held up a hand.

"Woah there, hold on! You're about to find out, keep yourself in check." From behind him, he took out a towel, and started to wipe Crocea Mors. "What, are you too fast?"

"You know I'm faster than that! Now then, you ready to rumble?"

"Hell Y-"

*SLAM* "HOLD IT!" Drawing fear from the students (he wish he did), it was the magnificent, the manly, the glorious, the STUPENDOUS, the Emperor of Manliness with the world's greatest mustache, in stomped Professor Peter Port. "You cannot hold a match in the arena without a teacher present, it's in the handbook! And what's worse, you forgot to invite me as a spectator!" All the students there cringed before letting out a combined 'Sorry'. "Ho ho ho, for now, it's alright. If the arena log is correct, then this is your first time sparring outside of class, is it not? Well, now that I have arrived, begin!"

The two people in the middle were stupefied for a bit. Could they really just start like this? Well, Ruby was indifferent as she rushed in, scythe shining, and semblance active. Before she could get the first hit in, as she always does in a Beacon-academy sparring match, Jaune's foot met her face.

"What the crap?!"

 _Mind's eye: check!_

* * *

The students on the stand were wide-eyed. Did somebody actually counter Ruby and shatter her first-hit streak?

"Hey, what just happened?"

"HAHAHA! Go, Jauney, GO!"

"Wha- how did that plebian do it? Nobody else here is able to counter Ruby's speed! As a matter of fact, Jaune's fallen prey to it many times in the past!" Pyrrha put her hand to her chin in wonder and thought.

"You're right, even I have some trouble with Ruby near the beginning of the match. But Jaune was able to effortlessly counter her, and even knew she went to attack him from behind. Not even a Faunus should be able to sense her like this." Blake's bow twitched at this.

 _ **That's true… whenever she starts to blur, it becomes impossible for a Faunus with senses like mine to catch her. All Jaune has going for him should be his 'eagle eyes', and they've never caught our Scarlet Blur before.**_

But as Ren watched Jaune kick Ruby, he noticed something- Jaune's eyes were closed. But as one skilled in Aura such as himself, he knows that Aura sensing is impossible. _Maybe… didn't Jaune say he was doing something involving special oils?_

* * *

"No time for shock, Ruby! Comin' at ya!" Activating his own semblance, Crocea Mors slammed into Ruby with the force of a cyclone. Wait, cyclone?

"Oh, right, you didn't want to show your semblance to any of the other students."

"Trump cards are trump cards, Ruby. Engarde!" Trailing his sword behind him, he rushed towards the reaper. Plunging Crescent Rose into the ground, Ruby took her signature sniper stance. Cocking her baby, she fired at the advancing knight. Moving his left hand to protect his body, the bullets bounced off, producing alight 'ping' noise with every deflection. _Metallica: check!_

"Wait, what?" Shifting her eyes to the screen, she saw that Jaune lost only less than ONE percent of Aura. "Ren's sessions are REALLY efficient… Maybe I should try?"

"Ruby, watch yourself now!" Turning her attention to the knight, she saw that he was right on top of her, sword raised high. Removing her weapon from the ground, she quickly sidestepped far away from the Faunus hunter. "You know I can still reach you, right? Flying Knife!" Cutting the air vertically, Jaune sent a crescent-shaped wave of cutting wind toward her way. Rolling out of the way, the thorny rose took several potshots at Jaune, who deflected each bullet. This transaction continued for a while, before Jaune missed one of Ruby's shots and was propelled backwards. _What, a forty-second long boost? Don't remember the Mind's Eye oil working for this long…_

As Ruby continued to race around him, delivering shot after shot, Jaune switched tactics. Reaching into his belt, he pulled out a towel soaked in… something. As he did his best to dodge all the rounds, Jaune wiped the towel across Crocea Mors. Placing the cloth back into his pocket, Jaune gathered the air around his sword. Feeling satisfied with the amount, Jaune launched a wide surge of wind across the arena in an area Ruby was to pass through just seconds later. " _Brimstone Squall!_ "

"What are-" Even with her keen sniper eyes, for some odd reason she completely missed the fact that the floor directly ahead of her looked moisturized and slippery. As soon as she made contact, the rosy reaper spun out. "Whoaah!" Before she got too dizzy, Ruby jammed Crescent Rose into the ground in an attempt to stop herself from sliding any further. Shaking her head to clear the dizziness, she turned to look at Jaune. "What was that cheap move for?"

"Sorry. I'm trying out some of the new things I mentioned earlier." Unfurling his wings, he rose into the air, brandishing his sword once more. " _Aerial Ace!_ " Sword pointed straight forward, Jaune charged towards Ruby at high velocity.

"Just because I can't run well right now doesn't mean I can't block! OR counter!" Twirling her scythe, she was able to knock away the airborne swordsman.

 _That may be true, but you won't be able to win this test run._ Soaring back over to the rose, the two engaged each other in close quarters combat. As Ruby nailed him in the chest with a smack from Crescent Rose's relatively more blunt side, she noticed something was off.

 _ **I'm… Slowing down?**_ It was subtle, but her arms and legs felt like they were treading through lead, and her blows had less of an impact than before. Looking about her body, she saw that the mysterious oil she slipped in was slowly turning into a sap-like substance.

 _Well, that was faster than I expected it to be… Let's speed up the process!_ " _Barrier Daora!_ " Around him, the wind swirled fiercely, granting Jaune a raging barrier of wind. The barrier passively increased the rate at which Ruby slowed down. This was visibly noticeable in Ruby's futile attempts to move more not working. Soon enough, the battle reached a disappointed end, as the adhesive covering Ruby was currently so strong that Ruby's hand only moved at a rate of 1 millimeter per second. "Sorry, Ruby, but that's the end."

"Well, that was disappointing." Looking behind him, Jaune saw that Professor Port and the rest of his friends were heading towards him and Ruby. "True, it would seem that you won, but that ending was disappointing. Very anticlimactic." Jaune gave him a sheepish look, and shrugged.

"Well, I'm not sure about Rubes over there, but this was mostly a test run for me." The professor raised an eyebrow.

"A test run?" Weiss got irritated and poked her finger against Jaune's chest.

"Quit stalling and explain, Arc!"

"Calm down, Weiss. Look, I'm pretty sure our resident guru Ren has figured it out already, but I was making sure that some of the things I made while in the lab actually worked like I wanted them to. And by the way, today will be the only time I'll be using them in battle. Once I'm done testing them out, the batches I've made will go into storage until they're actually needed, like, say, Beacon being invaded."

"What? C'mon, powerups like those would seem really cool!" Jaune shook his head.

"No can do, Yang. I can't make a ready supply of these at Beacon, since the oils come from very unique sources that can only be harvested once." The brawler 'tch'ed. "Sooo… who wants to help me with the next batch?" The rest of his friends looked at each other, then they looked behind Jaune at Ruby, who managed to open her mouth wide enough to speak.

"Not reco'ended." Looking at each other once more, they all decided to hightail it out of there.

"Hey! Wait! Come back!"

 **-I- -I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-** **-I-**

 **Falconia. An isolated region of plenty, the inhabitants have long tried their best to not interact with the four officialized kingdoms. However, due to the exploits of Jaune's father during his years as a student of Beacon, the eye of the world's rulers noticed Falconia. Wanting to protect their peoples and to prevent bloodshed, Jaune's father underwent various peace talks with the rulers of each of the kingdoms for the past twenty years. One part of these talks was the addition of Falconia as a fifth kingdom. Another included trading.**

 **Falconia was pretty bland. Despite having dust mines, they weren't on par with the rest of the world. The ores from this land were pitifully common, too, and their technological advancements weren't as stellar as Atlas's or Vales, although their cloaking device is phenomenal. Regardless, what were they to trade with the nations of the world? Plants.**

 **Due to Falconia's unique climate and isolation, amazing species of flora spawned, none of which could be found anywhere else in the world. These plant species have evolved in different ways- some plants are able to spit seeds out with the force of a bullet. Others were capable of producing fruit far more nutritious than the berries and apples of the other kingdoms. And the ones that Jaune's using are, as one can guess, capable of producing special juices.**

 **Alone, these juices aren't beneficial, and some are even harmful to both humans and Faunus. However, due to careful chemistry, these plant juices can be combined to form powerful ores, capable of rendering one's body as hard as platinum or increasing one's reflexes to asinine levels. Aside from boosting a person's abilities, some oils can also be used offensively. One example is an oil that has little to no friction, that then hardens into a powerful adhesive. Another is an oil that, when ignited by a flame, explodes into a brilliant flash of light, both harming and blinding an opponent.**

 _Thanks for the unnecessary lesson, nerd._

 **Shoo, Devil-Jaune! Get out of here!**

* * *

 **A/N: See? Mostly an exposition and a fight chapter that even the other characters dislike. Somehow, I still don't know what to feel about this chapter... Forever Fall, you're next!**

 **BTW please leave a review or PM me. I really want those things in my email.**

 **Paalam na!**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: I'm back with the obligatory Forever Fall chapter. Let's see how this goes!**

 **NexusBladeguard: I wouldn't say he drugged Ruby. Rather, he more or less sprayed her with super glue... will all of you perverts please stop smiling? Also, yes, I do them pretty well, if I say so myself. Now, I just need to work on polishing my character interactions, and I'll be more solid than a Metal Gear.**

 **foxchick1: Ask, and ye shall receive!**

 **With those two taken care of, let's go.**

* * *

"And then I was like…" The two teams RWBY and JNPR were currently walking throughout Beacon's halls. It was a Wednesday, and as such the eight of them were heading towards their first class of the day, Grimm Studies with Professor Port. At the back of the group, Jaune and Blake were conversing about some mythological books Professor Joestar recommended for them to read. In Jaune's hand were some of these books. As the group entered Professor Port's class, Jaune letting everyone go before him, he sensed someone walk behind him, a person he knew very well.

 _Oh, it's just Cardin. Nothing to worry about, he's just taking his usual route to class._ But he was wrong, as he felt Cardin's body move closer than necessary. With speed he did not expect from the bullying teen, he felt his books fly from his grasp, and heard retreating snickers behind him. With a small, silent sigh, he started to pick up his books.

"Hey." He didn't have to look up from the ground to know Blake was the one looking down on him with concern. "Is something wrong? You seem a little worried." Books in his arms, he got up, and he looked at her with a grin that he knew would look fake.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. My fingers just slipped."

* * *

After his turn in combat class, Jaune was passing through the door to the boy's locker room to put away his gear. At the same time, Cardin, who was fighting in the next match, was walking out of the room. As the two passed each other, Jaune could practically feel the grin forming on Cardin's face. Without warning, he felt Cardin's hand move quickly behind him. His body, tired after his recent bout with a raging gold brawler, couldn't move fast enough to intercept him. As such, his shield was unfurled in the middle of the doorway, with Jaune connected to it. Unamused, he his head towards Cardin, one eyebrow raised.

"Really? Really, Cardin?" The bully just chuckled.

"What, are you gonna cry about it?" Jaune shook his head.

"No, I'm just surprised you didn't do something worse than this." Reaching with one hand, Jaune was able to fold the shield back up again while Cardin just walked away, sniggering. Rolling his eyes, Jaune walked into the locker room and went to his locker, only to discover a black burn mark where it used to be. Again, he raised his eyebrows.

"Really Cardin?" With another gloomy sigh, the blonde teen whipped out his scroll, and began typing the coordinates to Beacon Academy's locker rooms into it.

* * *

As Team RWBY sat at theirs and JNPR's lunch table, waiting for the other team, they heard a loud bang outside the cafeteria alongside a few scream. Then, a putrid smell started to enter the lunch room. As the stench intensified, the door opened, revealing an irritated JNPR. Slowly and agitatedly, the four team members got their lunch, and sat across from their sister team. Ruby slowly opened her mouth to say something, but Jaune quickly raised his hand.

"Not. A. Word." The irritated older sister slammed her fist down on the table.

"Look, since the first day of school, Cardin and his cronies have been an annoying pain in the ass. But ever since a few weeks ago, he's raised the playing field in his favor!" Blake, nose clenched, nodded her head.

"His so-called 'pranks' have gotten more intense, especially to you and your team. Can't you do anything about it? We do have faculty here." Ren shook his head.

"Can't. The rulebook states that we have to somehow find a way to solve our problems without violence or staff intervention." At this point, Nora started bawling.

"BUT I WANNA BREAK HIS LEEEGSS!" A tentative Weiss put her hand on top of Nora's as a show of comfort.

"Exactly what happened to you guys?"

"In case you didn't notice, it seems that _someone_ left a stink bomb right outside the cafeteria doors. It was remote detonation, and went off the moment it sensed our Aura wavelength." As Pyrrha said this, she unconsciously bent her spoon, fork, and knife in half.

"Couldn't you just use your semblance to remove the smell?" A tired Jaune started to join in on Nora's lamenting.

"Been there, tried that. The smell's too strong to get rid of completely. We'd need a tub full of tomato juice to get rid of this." Weiss pulled out her scroll and began typing into it.

"Don't worry, Team JNPR, I've already placed an order for 30 gallons of it. You're welcome!" Both Ren and Pyrrha had to stop their partners from glomping Weiss.

"HAHA! Hoo boy, you guys smell worse than Mephitels!" With a hateful glare, the members of both teams turned to face Team CRDL. Two of them were laughing at them, Dove and Russel if Jaune remembered correctly (as if he bothered to remember). Sky, the nicest one in the group, was shamefully looking away from the table into his plate of food. Meanwhile, the ringleader of this circus was giving them an equally cruel glare.

 _Keep a cool head, Jaune. You don't want to disappoint dad. Just settle down, eat your food, and come up with a way to end this cold war…_

* * *

"Son of a BITCH!" It was currently Tuesday, and Team JNPR was currently relaxing in their dorm room. Actually, that was false- they were in their dorm, yes, but none of them were relaxed. Pyrrha did her homework with her pencil in a chokehold, Nora was busy destroying things in her videogame while shouting angry expletives and Ren was agitatedly brewing his tea. The only one not currently blowing off steam was Jaune, who was sitting on his bed.

"I'm going to go fly for a bit." Putting on some basketball shorts and a white tanktop, Jaune rushed out from the windowsill, breaking the glass on progress for the third time that week. As he soared among the clouds high over vale, he worked his brain for an answer to his current problem.

 _Should I?... No, that wouldn't work… How about… No, that's too unlikely…_ Frustrated, the Faunus prince perched on top of a stone Griffon on top of a Valean skyscraper. Trying his best to purge thoughts like that out of his head, he instead watched the nightlife of the city, finding solace in the beautiful lights and the interactions among the people he was watching. As he watched, his eyes caught a person about to be mugged in a back alley.

His muscles were clenched, his body was ready to swoop down on the thugs. Suddenly, from the corner of his eye, he saw two people running over to the alley, and started to beat the thugs off of the weaker person. As the goons ran away, the person who was being mugged backed away from his rescuers, but was coaxed into staying and standing alongside them with a simple offer: a helping hand. This was a sight he commonly saw in Falconia, where former tormentors turned into great friends with a simple, thoughtful, gesture of kindness. It was a thought that came to his mind as a potential solution… before he removed it from his psyche.

 _There's absolutely no way that would work! Ah, great, now my feathers are all ruffled up again. Better see if I can't clear my mind with some high speed…_ And he took off, leaving a trail of shining white feathers behind him.

 _Oh hey, stress is making you start to molt a little._

 _Oh come on!_

* * *

"Now, students…" Teams RWBY, JNPR, CRDL, and others were following their substitute teacher Professor Daisy as they hiked through woods of crimson wonder, Forever Fall. As it turns out, the sweet, gentle, Professor Peach was sick with the flu, and part of her lesson plan included this hike into nature to gather a unique sap for a quick chemical assignment.

"Forever Fall may look nice and beautiful, but be warned tha' critters o' Grimm populate these here woods. Now, the red sap y'all're s'pposed to gather is mighty attractive to Grimm, so try to not git it on ya. With that said, y'all can begin!" The students split into groups, with Teams RWBY and JNPR joining into one group. Conversing among themselves, they came across a clearing, with crystal clear water and trees. Lying on the wood was a brittle, dry substance- sap.

Here, away from the troubles of school (and CRDL), the group was able to relax. They played in a nearby stream, they lay down on the grass, and Nora was able to consume as much sugary sweets as she wanted. Actually, that was a lie- she was only able to drain one tree dry before Ren was able to restrain her by holding her in his arms.

 _If the blush on Nora's face means anything, then the ship must be getting ready for departure. Either that heartwarming thought, or she's just suffering from the high amount of sugar she consumed. Is that possible?... Whatever, I'm no doctor._

Then suddenly, he felt it. He could sense some movement near them. Focusing his senses, he pinpointed the source- it was on a hill right behind them. From the information he gathered, there were four individuals- one was light, two were not that heavy, while another one had heavy footfalls with a familiar stride. _Goddammit, CRDL. Whatever, I just hope they'll leave us alone._

They didn't. The group of four kept on creeping nearer and nearer to the eight teens. _Those assholes… are they up to something?_

*CRASH* "Sonuvabitch! Dove, the hell?"

"Hey! It's not my fault I got tripped and spilled the sap all over you!"

"THEN OPEN YOUR EYES!"

 _Wouldn't that be racist? Whatever, their problems aren't mine._ As he continued to listen to their bickering, he sensed something else appear. It was something big. It was something… dangerous. It was something major. _Well, I'm pretty sure that a team of qualified hunters in training can beat a single Ursa Major._

"THAT'S A BIG URSA! RUN!"

 _Or not._ He was literally shaken out of his musing by his red-haired teammate.

"Jaune, you can hear them, right? We should help them!"

"And do what? Make them feel more pissy about Faunus by having their admittedly low amount of pride being shattered by a knight in shining armor flying in to save them from what they could've killed on their own? I'll save CRDL, sure, but only if they actually are in a life-threatening situation. Besides, an entire team can take on an Ursa Major, no sweat!" He was proven wrong when three out of the four members of CRDL ran out from the trees next to them.

 _Wait, when did they get from there to there?_

"URSA! URSA!" Yang, feeling a small amount of excitement building up, caught one of the running men and held him up by his collar.

"Where?" Shakily, he pointed in a direction near the hill above them.

"There! Its got Cardin on the ropes!" After her eyes bugged out, Pyrrha turned to look at Jaune, who quickly face-palmed.

"Fine, I'll go and save the big lug. Pyrrha and Ruby, I ask that you guys wait in the trees, and help me on my signal. The rest of you can go get Professor Daisy. Agreed?" With a collective nod of their heads, Jaune unfolded his mighty wings, and ascended into the air.

* * *

"HAH!" With a sickening sound, Cardin was barely able to smash the Ursa Major's skull, turning it into mush. "Damn… the next time I see those assholes… they're so gonna get it…" Opening up his scroll, he grimaced when he saw how low he was on Aura. "I better haul ass, I can't fight another one like this!" As soon as he put his scroll away and sheathed his weapon, Cardin Winchester was tackled from behind, and was launched right into a tree.

With a groan, the bully turned himself around, only to come face-to-face with three more Majors, with one standing right above him. With a snarl, it raised its massive paw into the air. Guessing what was about to come next, the student of Beacon closed his eyes. The pain he anticipated never came. Instead, it was replaced with a familiar-sounding battle cry…

"Well, this is a crappy mess, ain't it, Cardin?" Opening his eyes, he looked up to see alabaster wings, messy blonde mop of hair, and a smiling face. "Can't let a face like that get messed up now."

"… What?"

"Nothing. The cavalry's here to save you!" With that, Jaune turned around, and jumped in to do battle with the beasts. Looking past his savior, Cardin noticed that both Ruby and Pyrrha were there too. Soon enough, they dispatched the giant bears, and were currently waiting for the rest of their class to come and pick them up. Dragging himself up the tree he was lying down on, Cardin hobbled over to the log Jaune was sitting on.

"Why… why'd you save me?" With a smirk, Jaune stood up, and looked him in the eye.

"Deux raisons, ami. One: there were Grimm in the area, and as a hunter it's my job to fix that. Two: you looked like you needed help." As Cardin stared into Jaune's eyes, he could see the honesty in his response.

"But, all the things-" Jaune put his hand over Cardin's mouth and shushed him.

"What's past is past, no amending that. All we can do is try and tidy things up for the future. I can't let past transgressions or prejudices weigh me down when I fly, after all. I could crash and drop." _C'mon, you big oaf, get the message, GET THE MESSAGE!_ Looking down on the ground in shame, Cardin cleared his voice.

"I… I… I'm sorry for all that I did… to you and your team. Really, I am." Jaune stared into Cardin's moist eyes, and saw that he was honest. He also noted what sounded like a group of people getting closer and closer to their location.

"Need some help walking buddy?" Without waiting for an answer, Jaune draped Cardin's arm around his shoulders, and supported him like a crutch. "As for your apology Cardin, it's accepted. Right, gals?" The two red-haired huntresses looked at the two boys, one supporting the other, and smiled.

"Right!"

* * *

 **A/N: Well, there's that ending.**

 **And with that, Season 1 of this fic is slowly coming to a close, with some actual plot totally not copy and pasted from the show. I know several of you who are going to not be happy about that, especially those that have read my other two works- you'll understand if you consistently read the author's notes for them. And look at their dates. Anyways, keep on waiting for October 22! #RWBYVol4**

 **Please leave me a review or a PM, so that this story can continue to get better and better.**

 **Paalam na!**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Hey guys, back with another mediocre chapter, getting into the end of volume one. Unfortunately, that means that I'll soon have to put this on hiatus for a couple of months once this fic's iteration of Volume 1 ends. :(**

 **Now then to the reviews... wait I DON'T HAVE ANY! C'mon, guys, I enjoy my reviews, I enjoy reviewing to reviews on this little space here. Throw a dog a bone, will you? Pls?**

 **Well, let's get started.**

* * *

"Shop-ping, shop-ping, tralalalaLA~" It was a Friday, and all of Beacon was in a rush. The end of the first semester was just a week away, and students everywhere were trying their best to tie up loose ends. Prodigal teams that already did most of that, such as RWBY and JNPR, were far from being stressed, and were enjoying their currently free weekend. Both teams, separately, decided to spend the hours after school enjoying the sights and sounds currently happening in Vale.

As soon as the second semester starts in a couple weeks, with two weeks between the first and second halves of school, the current population of Vale will grow dramatically. The reason for this? Within several weeks, Beacon Academy and the City of Vale would be hosting the Vytal Festival.

The Vytal Festival, put in place to help promote peace between the four kingdoms, was an event that took massive amounts of preparation. Not only would there be cameras and such televising events within this event, alongside other things, but there would be an stupidly large number of tourists being welcomed into Vale.

At its heart was the Vytal Festival Tournament, a massive showcase of the finest warriors of each kingdom's top schools. Meant to ensure that hunters always strived for the best they can be and to never settle for mediocrity, hunters in training regularly practiced for the several months up until the event. This is where we find the whole of Team JNPR- out shopping for extra tools and equipment to help them practice. Oh sure, the Beacon arena has enough, but that word would never apply to one of Beacon's top-tier first year teams.

"Nora, get back here!" As Ren ran after his hyperactive childhood friend, Jaune sighed whistfully.

"What's the matter, oh glorious leader?"

"Oh stop with that, Pyr. I'm just a little bit jealous of those two chasing each other." Pyrrha chuckled into her hand.

"And at Nora?"

"Hey, me and Ren grew close, but I see him as a sibling. Besides, you know that I can't interfere with a ship that cute and cliché."

 _ **Oh, you poor, blonde, adorkable idiot. With all your Faunus senses, you still manage to completely ignore Blake's signals.**_ "Sometimes, I wonder how dense you can be, Jaune."

"What?"

"Nothing." Happily, she skipped away from him, towards the pink duo, who were trying to haggle with a candy vendor.

"Hey, wait! What was that about me being dense?" Soon, their shopping trip evolved into a leisurely game of tag, as each member sprinted across the city away from each other.

* * *

"Ha ha!" Sun Wukong was having more fun than a barrel of monkeys right now. He managed to successfully stow away on a ship, steal a delicious golden banana, flirt with a cute Faunus girl down at the docks, and was currently having a blast running away from a cop and a dumb cop! "Man, I always enjoy a good adrenaline rush!"

As he ran, the trickster sharply turned at a corner, right in front of a metal pole. The two cops were too close behind him to react fast enough, with both men slamming into the pole hard enough to knock them out. To add insult to injury, Sun threw banana peels onto both of their faces, along with the always mature blowing of a raspberry.

"Well, it's been fun, but I got a lot of better things to do, so see ya later, dumb and dumber!" Running into a back alley, the golden monkey leapt off the walls, landing on top of an empty roof. Catching a few breaths, Sun continued running around on rooftops. "If only the rest of the band were here. It'll take too long for the ship to get here. Man, I REALLY wish there was someone here I know." The voice that he heard right after was so surprising to him, he almost fell from the roof.

"SUUUUN WUUUKOOONG!" Turning his head to the source of the noise, he quickly ducked out of the way of a low-flying, high-speed object. As he looked at the familiar face and glistening, white wings, he realized that it wasn't an object- rather, it was someone he was never sure he'd see again.

*gulp* "Hey… J…" The monkey was forced to dodge a cyclone-clad kick.

"SUN, YOU BASTARD!" As Jaune Arc threw punches and kicks his way, the more agile Sun Wukong kept on dodging them, albeit barely. "WHY THE HELL ARE YOU HERE?!"

"Well, of course, the tournament. But man, J, it's been too long since we last saw each other. Now, I'd love to stop and chat, but only when you're done trying to bash my face in."

"NEVER! I will make you PAY!" The air around them started to spiral, and Jaune's movements started to quicken. Realizing what was happening, the other Faunus quickly activated his semblance. A light like the sun surrounded him, and a clone made from Aura quickly tackled Jaune and exploded. TThrown off balance, that gave Sun enough time to make a break for it. "GET BACK HERE!" Spreading his wings, Jaune flew after the free-running ape.

"WHY ARE YOU SO MAD?" Sun generated another clone, and sent it at Jaune. He knew that he couldn't make him drop, but he most certainly could slow him down.

"For one: YOU keep hitting me! Two: YOU NEVER CALLED WHEN I LEFT!" The shock from this caused the monkey to stumble for a bit.

"My scroll broke!"

"You could've used someone else's! YOU COULD'VE EMAILED ME!" The two continued their explosive, angry race across the Valean roofs, garnering no small amount of attention from civilians below. Luckily, the few of Sun's clones Jaune actually managed to dodge dissipated harmlessly into the air when they missed their mark.

"Look, Jaune, I'M SORRY for not calling after you left Vacuo to continue flying around the world! But you gotta understand, I-"

"WHY DID YOU HAVE TO LIE BACK THEN?!"

"What?"

"You LIED about LOVING ME for a YEAR!"

"Jaune! What are you talking about?" As one final Sun clone hit Jaune, he started to drop out of the sky. However, Jaune was still conscious enough to glide himself right into Sun, sending the both of them sprawling onto a rooftop.

"A month…" Slowly, both teens picked themselves up. "One month after we left Vacuo, my family passed through its borders once again, in a spot really close to your old neighborhood." Both of them were watching each other carefully. "I wanted to see you again, so I dropped by, and spotted you and the gang while I was flying over the old park. I flew closer, and then, I heard it." Jaune grit his teeth, and tackled the poor monkey. Jaune ended up straddling Sun, and pinned him down by his shoulders. "I heard you talk about how you only dated me out of pity. YOU WERE LEADING ME ON!"

"We were friends! What was I supposed to do, reject your confession?"

"THAT WOULD'VE BEEN BETTER!"

"YOU DON'T HAVE TO SHOUT IN MY FACE!" At this point in time, both males were busy yelling at each other on the rooftop.

"I would've accepted a rejection better than your involuntary confession…" Sick of hearing his old friend's tirade, Sun head-butted Jaune off of him.

"Look, Jaune, we're friends, and friends make sure friends don't cry. Look, I would've been happy to keep the charade up for as long as possible, alright Jaune? You know it hurts me to see a friend cry!"

"Why, Sun? Why don't you ever think about these things before you do them?" Sun looked at Jaune with a confused expression.

"What do you mean?" Taking a deep breath, Jaune elaborated.

"Imagine yourself about to ask out, say, May Zedong, only to get rejected. Hurts, right?"

"W-well, yeah, it would."

"Imagine if she said yes, and your relationship lasts for about a year before you discover that she's been cheating on you behind your back since the first date. How would it feel to know that all the effort you put into your relationship was worth nothing since day one?" The silence coming from Sun gave Jaune all the answers he needed. Moving over to where his old pal was, Sun placed his arms around Jaune's shoulder.

"Jaune, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry for letting you feel devastated. Please, somehow find the strength in your heart to forgive me, your friend, for the stupid mistake he's made." Upon hearing those words, Jaune felt a sad smile tug at his lips.

"How many times have you had to say those words to me and the others?" Sun's face started to figuratively glow.

"More than I should have, less than I will in the future." Extending his hand, the desert monkey helped Jaune get up off the floor. As he got up, the knight's face grew serious.

"It's going to take a while before I can even call you my friend again, Sun." He flashed the prince with a smile, and a thumbs-up.

"Good- that means we can start fresh, without some of the awkward past behind us!" Turning around, Jaune's wings unfolded.

"See you later." Sun watched him as he flew towards the docks.

"See ya later, Jaune."

* * *

"Where is he?" Impatiently, Pyrrha tapped her foot on the ground. Her and the childhood friends of JNPR were waiting at a small café in downtown Vale for their glorious leader ever since he flew off somewhere half an hour ago.

"He couldn't have gotten very far. All those mid- air explosions ended around here, so he should probably be close." With an agitated eye, Pyrrha turned to look at the Valkyrie sitting right next her, eating from a massive stack of pancakes.

"And how convenient it is that this place is Cocoa's Bistro, famous for their lattes and chocolate pancakes."

*slurp* "Don't forget the 'Nora Special'~!" As they waited, suddenly something dropped in front of them. As they looked closer, they saw that it was a male monkey Faunus. An admittedly hot monkey Faunus with well-toned abs. As he dusted himself off, a look of surprise came over his face as he saw a shadow fly overhead him.

Moving their eyes upwards to look at the roving figure, they saw that it was, in fact, their very own fearless leader. Circling around, Jaune made an impressive landing on the middle of the street, superhero style. As he got up, he turned his smiling head toward his friends… and then deadpanned at the other Faunus. After a moment of awkward silence, the se- ho- MONKEY Faunus slowly climbed up a lamppost, before springing onto the roof of the café, no doubt walking away slowly on the rooftop. Jaune also walked forward slowly, pulling up a chair and then sitting with his friends.

"So… a friend of yours?"

"Not really, no. Well, I'm tired, how about we head back home?" Pyrrha made a 'mock-offended' gesture, placing her hand over her chest.

"You're tired? We spent half an hour chasing explosions across the sky!"

"Hey, you're not the one who to fly through all that monkey-business!" And so, after grabbing a to-go crate for Nora's order, the team of students walked off into the sunset, on their way to the nauseating airstrip that connects them to Beacon.

* * *

Jaune paced around the room, clearly frustrated with something. A curious on looker would've asked 'what's up'? His team, though, knew what was bugging him- their sisters across the hall, Team RWBY, were having what sounded like a rather serious argument. More specifically, the monochrome pair of ladies were discussing a subject rather touchy to the winged male- a group of terrorists known as the White Fang.

"Jaune, sit down. You're going to make a trench with how much you're pacing." Ren nodded in response to Pyrrha's concern.

"It isn't good to be as wound up as you are right now. Listen to music, meditate with me, play games- you have a lot to help you take your mind off this."

*sigh*"I know, I know, but the way the conversation is flowing, I don't like it. I can't shake the feeling that something bad or very regrettable is going to come down between Weiss and Blake." Nora thwacked Jaune on the back with a little bit more force than necessary.

"They're going to be fine! They're Team RWBY, the closest group in Beacon! Well, aside from us of course. C'mon, how bad would it be?" Jaune's face adopted a look of panic.

"I really wish you hadn't said that, Nora."

"Why?" Jaune's wings never unfolded faster.

"Blake just let out the fact that she's ex-White Fang!" The rest of his team had a collective look of surprise on their faces.

"WHAT?"

"And she just leapt out the window! Dammit, she's going to run away from Beacon. BLAKE!" Breaking the glass once again, Jaune spiraled out into the night. Ascending at high speeds, he spun around, trying to spot Blake in the night. "Damn, it's too dark. Why can't my night vision be as good as those of other Faunus?" After looking around some more, he managed to notice something. Two figures, barely visible, were retreating into the dark. One looked like it had a bow, the other looked like it had a long tail. He only caught a glimpse, but he was sure that it was Blake,

"I can barely see them, much less keep track of them here. The moon isn't bright enough, and neither are the lights that are scattered throughout campus. I'll need to give up for now…" Slowly, he descended, and flew back into his dorm, where both JNPR and RWY were waiting for him.

"Jaune! What do we do? Blake can't just run off like that!"

"She just did, Ruby! Face it, we're not getting her back. Which, now that I think about it, isn't as bad a deal."

"Ex, Weiss." The bickering pink duo turned to look at Jaune. "She's ex-White Fang. She left once she saw they were getting too violent." Yang's eyes became red. She grabbed him by the collar, and lifted him up into the air.

"YOU KNEW!"

"Yes, I did! And so what? We all have our own secrets to keep! Don't you and Ruby have something that MAY not matter to others, but is something YOU want to keep under wraps?" While her eyes were still red, Yang gave in, and unceremoniously dropped him. "Good. Now then, chances are, she's going to try and look out for anything related to the Fang- bases, recruitment centers, operations. Considering the current news that's been flowing through the Internet, that would mean places like dust shops, abandoned warehouses, and the docks. Blake, despite her aloof nature, can still be pretty hot-headed, so she'll likely start searching tomorrow. And we'll be the same." The other teenagers in the room nodded, with Weiss turning her head to the side. Nodding his head in return, Jaune turned around, and stared out the broken window, framing the night sky.

"Tomorrow, we search for Blake!"

* * *

 **A/N: That could've ended better, and I mean that in more ways than one. Well, we get to meet Sun, and we can see that Jaune's been around- also in more ways than one. Writing about the characters from the tournament will definitely be fun.**

 **So yeah, a pretty mid-tier chapter for a pretty mid-tier fanfic. I hope you guys enjoyed, remember to review and PM, and I'll see you next time.**

 **Paalam Na!**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Well, here we go, guys. The last chapter for my rendition of volume 1, and also the longest chapter here so far. Hope you enjoy!**

 **Guest (review for chapter 7): Ha ha ha, HA HA HA HA! Wait 'till you see the entire family...**

 **justjustin3099: Weren't expecting what, Jaune's old fling with Sun? Well, seeing as how he's a migratory fellow, we're going to have some fun once the Tournament rolls around.**

 **hirshja: You know what I think is sad? The fact that I had to plead for reviews like yours. True, I can blame you and the other readers, but when it comes down to it, I take it as how good a storyteller I am. A good story makes people ask more questions and stuff like that. So yeah, I need to up my game. Plus, I think I lost a few followers, too...**

 **With that all out of the way, let's begin!**

* * *

"We have seven people, SEVEN PEOPLE. One of us is basically a ninja, another one can run around fast enough to leave sound in the dust, hell I can even fly and I have animalistic senses. But with all this, we somehow can't seem to find a single person!" The two blondes, alongside Pyrrha, were walking around the streets of Vale, each of them rather glum. The seven friends had decided to split into a group, and would rendezvous at Cocoa's at around four in the afternoon. Either that, or at a place with close towards Blake's location. It was sad to say, but it was already 3:50, and none of their friends reported anything new.

"Well, MAYBE we could've found my partner if a certain someone actually searched around with us." Even though she said no names, it was clear she meant a certain alabaster heiress.

"Give her a break, Yang. Both Blake _and_ Weiss took it a bit harshly."

"Both gals need their own soul-searching, my fellow blond. Weiss needs to find it in her heart to look over both their pasts, while Blake needs to face hers- without doing anything rash, of course." The buxom brawler sighed, and accepted the fact that the other two were right.

As the trio made their way to Cocoa's, they saw that they were the first ones there. They grabbed a large enough table, and proceeded to wait. After less than a minute, however, Yang got up. "Well, I need to use the restroom. See if you can't get me a Dragonator latte, okay Jaune?" Pyrrha nodded her head.

"I think I'll go too. Do you mind getting me a Spartan Shot? I haven't had enough rest lately, and I think I'll need the energy for later."

"Sure." And with that, the two girls walked off. As Jaune waited for the rest of the group so that he could order, he saw a certain monkey Faunus place something on a table next to him. "Wukong, what is that you're leaving?" The radiant ape looked at Jaune with mild surprise.

"Jaune, wha- wait, Wukong? Seriously, we're back to that? Okay, fine, let me start over. Arc, what a surprise to find you here! I'm just putting down a quick tip for the service here. What about you?" With a groan, Jaune put his face in his palm.

"Feeling hopeless, maybe. There's an ex-member of the W.F. I'm searching for, but I can't seem to get any leads." Jaune would later swear that he never saw (the) Sun smile so brightly.

"Dude, I got something that might help you. I overheard a conversation on the ship I was stowing away on- a huge shipment of dust from Atlas is coming in later tonight!" That caught Jaune's attention.

"How huge?"

"HUUGE! It's a freakin' SchneeCo. Freighter, dude! And, since this mass-dust-robbery thing is what most of the cops are talking about, plus the fact that it's from the Schnee Company, that means that there's a chance the W.F. are gonna be there." Jaune mulled over the information his new friend was giving him, alongside his own feelings regarding the ordeal. "So, you wanna meet me and my new friend later tonight?"

"… Okay."

"Great! Well, I gotta go. See ya!" With that, the 'sexy beast' walked away. As he did, Pyrrha and Yang walked back to the table, and the other four people in their close-knit circle were also heading towards them. As the approached, Jaune feigned a tired, sad look.

 _Sorry, guys, but even I have to indulge in a few selfish desires every now and then…_

* * *

"There he is!" Blake looked to her fellow Faunus on the right, who had just finished stealing them some fruit to eat. Looking in the direction he was facing, it came as a surprise to her when she discovered that flying right toward was none other than Jaune Arc.

"Jaune?" Sun clamped his hand over her mouth, and shushed her, before the name she said registered in his head.

"Wait, you know Jaune?"

"Hell yeah she does!" Landing gracefully, Jaune lifted his eyes up, and looked fiercely at the cat. "Blake, you do realize how worried we were about you, right? All of Team JNPR and RWBY?" Regretfully, she looked to the ground.

"Not all of you, not the one other person as intertwined with the White Fang as me…" Annoyed, Jaune smacked his own forehead with his shield.

"Blake…"

"I know you guys need a heart-to-heart and all, and I'm sorry for cutting this short, but in case you didn't notice, there's a couple of bullheads in the sky right now with a picture of a white wolf on them." This attracted both of their attentions, as they looked towards the sky with serious faces. As the airships descended, several figures hopped out of the vehicles. They were wearing uniforms of black and white, with Grimm-like masks covering their faces and generic-looking swords and rifles. Jaune, Sun, and Blake knew these people all too well- and from watching the cat's ears move toward the side of her head, she wasn't too happy about it.

"You really didn't think they were behind the robberies, did you?"

"No, Sun. I think deep down I knew that they were the ones doing it. It just hurts to be right sometimes." Blake felt a hand on her shoulder- she didn't need her Faunus attributes to tell her who it was.

"Well, let's see if we can negotiate something. I mean, you were member before."

"Uh-huh. I was a warrant officer, so I have experience dealing with grunts like them."

"Aww, what? I was ready to whip out my staff!" Jaune was about to retort, but the moment he saw a certain someone exit from the ship's hull, he had to agree.

"You may actually get your chance. Look who's over there!" Wondering who he was referring two, Blake looked back at the airship. She was less than enthusiastic about who she saw.

"Hey! We're not the most inconspicuous band of thieves out here tonight, so why don't you pick up the pace!" It was a face he'd seen many times in news reports and fashion magazines: It was Vale's most fabulous criminal, Roman Torchwick. Known for flashy robberies and blowing things up, Roman Torchwick was also confirmed to be biologically human. Human, as in the race of beings the White Fang wishes to pretty much wipe off of Remnant.

"This isn't right!" Blake grit her teeth, and grabbed Gambol Shroud by the hilt. "The White Fang would _never_ work with a human, much less take orders from one! I'm going down there." Unsheathing her blade, she hopped off the building they were on, and made a beeline for Roman, while still hiding in the shadows. Sun, smiling radiantly, turned to his old friend.

"Surprise assist?"

"Naturally." The two dashed off from their positions, with Sun racing along the tops of the crates, eating a banana. Jaune, meanwhile, was spiraling higher and higher into the air. He stopped when he was in the perfect viewing angle: high enough so that his eyes could see them while their eyes couldn't see him, and with just enough moonlight to provide him ample vision. Which was immediately thrown out of the way when Roman, who had Gambol Shroud pressed against his throat, fired an explosive shot that threw up a large cloud of smoke and debris. "I can't see! … Ah, to hell with it! _FALCON KICK!_ " With the power of wind and wings by his side, Jaune descended to the ground rapidly, both feet sticking out, towards a random spot. _Hit a bad guy, hit a bad guy, hit a bad guy…_ Eventually, he broke through the cover of smoke, and was headed directly for Roman. At the same time, Sun had already blinded him with a banana peel, and was already midair with a drop-kick of his own. The monkey, the bird, and the walking wardrobe all connected, With Sun hitting him in the face and Jaune drilling into his ribs.

While the force was strong with these two, it only knocked Roman a few feet away. Leaving Sun to deal with the crime boss, Jaune tended to the mooks surrounding him. They came at him, swords crimson red, but no blade touched him. Ducking and weaving between each low-level slice, the avian knight dispatched his foes easily- a shield bash to the face, a kick to the neck, and other strikes that would be non-fatal. _Can't really tell if these guys have Aura or not… it would be a real mess if I accidentally cut them._

As the last of the melee grunts around him fell, a group of gunners took positions in front of him. Standing in a perfect line, the White Fang fired again and again, sending ammo flying through the air, sounding in time with Roman's explosive flares in the background. This endeavor proved useless, as Jaune's shield was whipped out, and covering his front. As he charged forward, the ammunition pinged uselessly off of his shield. As he got closer to the line, they scattered, and maneuvered themselves around him.

 _Amateurs._ Rather than dodging forward, Jaune leapt straight up into the air. He did this the moment the White Fang soldiers fired their guns, causing them to bring each other down. After performing a quick visual scan, Jaune felt relieved- the projectiles all hit non-vital areas. They wouldn't be bleeding out anytime soon. Sensing a bunch of boots moving behind him, he dropped, and slowly turned around. He faced several White Fang troops, alongside a Bullhead for some odd reason.

Slowly, he lifted his arms up. As he did this, he subtly activated his semblance. Using just enough force from the wind, Jaune lifted up two large crates of cargo. Since Jaune made sure that the currents of air he was using weren't detectable to the ears of the other Faunus, it made him appear to have telekinetic powers. Slowly, a grin came to his face.

"IT'S NO USE!" Flinging his arms forward, with the power of wind he sent one of the containers at the Bullhead, clipping its wing, and adding to the noise of explosions from Roman's cane. He sent the other flying just above the heads of the grunts, forcing them to duck. Using this opportunity, he dashed forward, and grabbed one of the soldiers by the leg. Spinning once, he hit the mooks with another mook by throwing the mook he was using.

Suddenly, he felt an impact crash into him from behind. Recovering from the blow, he saw that it was the body of his old buddy, Sun. Turning his head to look in front of him, he saw Roman point his cane at him.

"Bye bye, Birdy!" Firing a shot, Jaune managed to deflect it with his shield. As he did, Blake jumped into the fray once again. It was clear she and Sun had tag-teamed Roman, as both had parts of their clothes singed or torn. Not wanting his close friend to fight the obviously superior fighter when she's not in top form, Jaune quickly grabbed Blake by the scruff of her neck.

"What're you-"

"Tag out, you've had your turn! I'm sick of these grunts!" Shifting the position of his hand to Blake's shoulder, she allowed him to use her as a small spring to vault into the air. From his position in the sky, he unfolded his wings, and flew straight at Roman. Brandishing his sword, he swung his blade in a horizontal chop that was met by Roman's cane.

Landing on the ground, Jaune and Roman launched into a blurry dance. Using his one-handed sword skills, Jaune launched into a flurry of attacks. However, Roman matched him blow for blow, strike for strike, swing for swing. It didn't take long for Jaune to start getting pushed back.

 _As a knight and a prince, I'd despise doing this, but for this jackass, fighting dirty is too good._ Breaking from his combo, Jaune delivered an overhead slice.

"Oh, this is just cute!" Countering with his own overhead swipe, Jaune and Roman locked their weapons together, with Jaune gritting his teeth. "You honestly expect to-" Suddenly, the Faunus let go of Crocea Mors, and quickly moved to the side. Having nothing to hold him back, Roman stumbled forward, with his groin slamming into Jaune's shield.

As Roman dropped to his knees, Jaune's knee rose up and bashed him in the chin, right before his foot planted itself squarely between Roman's lungs and colon, sending him falling to the turf once more. However, the criminal quickly recovered, and as he rose up he flung dirt and gravel into Jaune's eyes.

"AA-oof!" Taking his chance, Roman jabbed the tip of his Melodic Cudgel into Jaune's solar plexus, before pulling the trigger. The point-blank explosion sent Jaune flying into Sun and Blake. As quick as they could, the Faunus stood back up, Sun helping his old friend, and faced the crime boss.

"Never expected a student of Beacon to resort to fighting dirty."

"Seriously, are you really the Jaune we know? I've never seen a self-proclaimed knight attack someone in the balls before."

"Four things. One: Torchwick, I'm a teenager, and the crap we do comes and goes. Two: I don't wanna hear something like that from you, Wukong. Three: I may act noble a lot, but if cornered, fighting dirty is my only option. Four," He sent a smug grin towards Roman, and noted a sliver of red in the distance. "The fact that you aren't still groaning in pain probably means you doesn't have something down there." Gritting his teeth, Roman pointed his cane towards the trio. However, he soon felt a bullet bounce off of his back. Turning around, the crime lord saw a past annoyance, coming back to annoy him- Ruby Rose.

"Leave my friends alone!"

"Red, I think it's past your bed time!" Suddenly, Torchwick grinned even more than normal, as he saw Ruby turn to look somewhere behind her. Using this moment, he sent one of his explosive flares at the reaper, and laughed evilly when it hit its mark.

Using their short exchange of words as a slight reprieve, Jaune whispered to his two allies.

"Wukong, 'Blinded by the sun'! Blake, as a contingency, 'Crouching Tigress'!" Both of them nodded. Focusing his semblance, he once more lifted up to large containers with his wind. "Hey, Asshat! Whatever you do, IT'S NO USE!" Once more, he flung his arms forward, and once more, he sent two large, metal projectiles flying just above his enemy's chest.

Ducking under the containers, Roman stood straight back up, only to be bombarded from the back by several glowing, explosive copies of Sun Wukong. Turning back around, and aiming his cane at a certain airborne simian, he was oblivious to the cat ninja blurring into existence to his side. With the element of surprise on her side, Blake quickly slashed in an X shape across Roman's ribs.

"Aargh! Damn cat!" He quickly bitchslapped her with his cane, only to be pushed to the floor by a descending Sun.

"And the Sun has set!" Getting pissed with these constant interruptions, Roman slammed the tip of his cane against the ground. The rebound managed to hit the monkey, but as Roman got up, he found himself once again hit in the face, courtesy of Jaune's shield.

As Jaune was about to follow up, he was distracted by the sound of two bullheads being destroyed behind him. Looking behind him, he saw a ginger-haired girl, with swords floating around her. If he looked closely, Jaune could see wires coming out of her back. He couldn't discern more information, however, as one of Melodic Cudgel's explosive shots blasted the ground below them.

"Kids these days, never paying attention to the important things…" After kicking Jaune in the ribs one last time, the criminal retreated to the safety of his bullhead.

As he lay on the ground, Jaune noticed something- one of the many containers of dust was broken. Inside were stores of crystal dust, specifically burn crystals. As he got up to his knees, Jaune grabbed one, and began charging his aura into it. Once it was significantly charged, Jaune touched it to the pommel of Crocea Mors. As he did, the crimson crystal was absorbed into his sword.

Swirling some wind around his blade, the presence of the flaming gem caused the air around his sword to catch on fire. Hearing the sounds of a departing bullhead nearby, Jaune looked, and saw Roman getting into an airship. Taking his sword hand, he raised Crocea Mors in horizontal position above his head, before swinging it back down in a spiral fashion.

 _Flamestrom might give them an idea about my actual semblance…_ "Pyscho Inferno!" A spiraling mass of fire was sent at Roman's armored bullhead. While it did manage to rock the vehicle, it didn't so much as make a dent. Without stopping, the airship swiftly retreated, leaving behind all the White Fang grunts, and the teens, for the arriving Valean police force to deal with.

* * *

"Ha, alright! Thanks, sis. Okay, I'll see you in a week. Take care." Turning off his scroll, Jaune walked back to the little rest area set up for him and the others. As he did, he could sense some familiar footsteps approaching. Smiling, he turned around, and greeted the rest of Teams JNPR and RWBY. "Hey guys!" Ruby copied him, cheerfully waving to her teammates.

Their happiness was short lived, as Pyrrha and Yang punched their respective team leaders in the face.

"WHAT THE HELL! YOU DIDN'T CALL!"

"ow ow ow, sis, I'm still a bit sore from Roman's shot!"

"It's your fault for not inviting me to this little party."

"Pyrrha, you're really going to punch a guy who took several explosive shots and cane swipes to the face?"

"It's your fault for not calling for back-up."

"And besides, we found Blake!" The Faunus boy gestured with his arms to the Faunus girl to his side. All at once, time appeared to slow down, as Weiss coolly stepped in front of her. Chin raised, she looked critically at Blake, who had on a mask of worry and nervousness. Before the feline could start speaking, Weiss had shoved her finger in front of her face.

"Thirty-six hours. For the two days you were gone, I've had thirty-six hours to think things over, to look for an answer to the question of how I feel about your past. And do you want to know what the answer was?" Blake closed her eyes. "I don't care!" The cat, out of surprise, opened her eyes, and actually managed to fall back onto her butt.

"What?"

"You heard me. You used to be part of the Fang, right? Only used to be. That's the past, and it doesn't matter. What does matter is what you're going to do here and now, in the present, alongside your team. Don't go to anyone strange, like that one over there." Without turning around, she pointed at the monkey Faunus sitting somewhere behind her.

"Weiss, I-"

"Nope, zip it! Water under the bridge. You don't need to say sorry to us right now." Everyone around them smiled warmly, none more so than Jaune. Speaking of which, the blonde decided to get everyone's attention, and clapped his hands twice.

"Whoo! Way to go, girl! You managed to get everything in order again. We need to celebrate this, AND the end of our first semester!" Nora and Ruby leapt up into the air.

"PARTY TIME!"

"Sorry, no party time." He almost died on the inside due to the sad faces Nora and Ruby were making. "I was thinking something along the lines of a tropical vacation." Weiss pulled out her scroll.

"Allow me to-"

"No need, Weiss. My sister's already booked us a trip to somewhere off of southern Mistral." The name 'Mistral' caught Pyrrha's attention, while the phrase 'tropical vacation' peaked Sun's interest.

"Hey can I-"

"I almost want to say no, but since you've helped us out, I think not inviting you would be a sin." Eagerly, the monkey Faunus jumped up into the air.

"Alright! Yahoo- aargh my ribs!" Once again, Jaune decided to take center stage.

"Alright guys, pack your bags. After all the punishment we're surely going to receive for not calling in help and causing damage to the docks. We're going on a vacation!" All at once, the two teams and Sun raised their arms up into the air.

"YEAH!"

* * *

 **A/N: I totally could've done that better.**

 **Well, I'm here to say that, like my other two stories, this one will have to be put on hiatus for a couple months. Hopefully by then, I'll have a good, well-planned updating schedule. In the meantime, if you haven't already, check out my first two fics, "A Broken Soul" and "Jaune Arc: Monster Hun-err, Summoner!" Or if you want to, check out my upcoming (and first ever) crossover fanfic, "A Fistful of Destiny", which combines Street Fighter and RWBY.**

 **Well, in any case, please review and PM me, let me know your thoughts on this crap here.**

 **Paalam Na!**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: What's crackin' guys? Screwthehype here, back with a new chapter for y'all to read! Something nice, something without much tension, a little bit of a beach (to write). *snickers* That was terrible...**

 **justjustin3099: Not just yet, buddy. You may want to hold out for a while**

 **Nexus Bladeguard: Next season? It's now**

 **SnapDragon21: Don't stay awake too long, you might impair your vision. Then how'd you be able to read amazing stuff like this?**

 **SmexyBananas: What part of it do you wish was real? The fighting, the terrorism, the pain, or the cat-girl? Just joking, I know what you mean. Too bad arguments can't be solved just like that... I would've been able to get that last slice of pizza if they could...**

 **Whelp, it's time for a new chapter!**

* * *

"VAY-CAY-SHUN! VA-CAY-SHUN!" Nora and Ruby were happily chanting these words over and over again as they stood at Beacon's airship landing strip. They, alongside Pyrrha, Weiss, Blake, and Yang were standing in front of what appeared to be a mountain of suitcases, each one carrying different sets of clothes and beauty supplies and… nothing else, really. Meanwhile, next to the mountain stood Jaune and Ren, each one holding onto the handle of a single suitcase. They looked at the girls' luggage, and then they looked at each other before shaking their heads.

"Girls." As they waited for their airship to arrive, Jaune and the gang were doing various things to keep them from being bored. The hyperactive members of their team were busy playing "Paddy cake, Paddy cake", although that ended when Ruby accidentally knocked off a snazzy sun hat Nora was wearing and Nora knocked off Ruby's in retaliation, leading the two of them to just play tag. Yang, Weiss, and Pyrrha were discussing some of the various tournaments they've participated in, from fighting tournaments to races to beauty pageants.

"You? In a dress? Yang, I can hardly believe you somehow won a competition for comedy. What makes you think I'll believe you participated in a pageant?"

"And what makes YOU think I'll believe you're the driver of the infamous 'White Ghost'?"

Ren, relieved that Ruby was essentially watching over Nora for him, got into a meditative position and proceeded to train… something, maybe his Semblance? Jaune couldn't tell, as he never revealed it to anyone as of yet, but several objects in the vicinity were turning into grayscale versions of themselves, so that was a thing. Speaking of Jaune, the only other male within the two teams had his feathery shawl unfurled, and he was busy preening the white plumes that graced his wings.

And, keeping up with her status quo, Blake Belladonna had her metaphorical whiskers stuck in a leather-bound book. Again. Well, Jaune would call it the status quo if it weren't for the lack of happiness or excitement present on her visage, which were the kinds of emotions she held when completely engrossed in a novel. Instead, there was a look of distraction, of worry, of recollection.

 _Oh brother… Don't tell me she's still hung up over the incident at the docks?_ Deciding to see what was wrong with the other Faunus, the Eagle went next to her, crouching down until they were around eye level. He waited to see if she would turn around and notice him; he had no such luck. Deciding on a more aggressive approach, the birdie gave a small tap on the page, nothing that would freak out the black cat. And it worked; he garnered her attention, and she snapped the book shut.

"Is there anything you want, Jaune?"

"Well, Blake, I was watching your face,"

"Aww! Look at Blakey and Chicken Joy over there!"

"Shut it, Xiao-Long! And OUR conversation still isn't over with!"

"… And I noticed that you weren't wearing the happy expression you normally have when reading a book. Is anything wrong that you want to talk about?" There was a slight pause as Blake stared at the ground right in front of her.

"Well, no, nothing I want to talk about right now. Why?"

"Hey, you can't blame a friend for wanting to cheer up another friend when they're down."

"Well, the offer is appreciated. But still no."

"Ah, fine. But don't think you can't talk to me or anyone else here about your problems. After all, we care about you, y'know." He didn't quite discover what exactly was the problem, but Jaune was able to gain a prize for his efforts: seeing a beautiful Cheshire smile from a friend. Their friends, looking at the scene, believed it to be a beautiful moment… before a pinkish, purplish bolt of lightning came from nowhere and struck Jaune.

"Dear Brother," The Beacon students heard a voice, loud, clear, and very, VERY posh, rang out. "Might I ask you what you were doing?" Directing their heads to the source of the sound, they took in a strange sight. It was a little girl, dressed in gothic Lolita clothing similar to Ruby's, but much more… poofy, with more crosses around the end of her long, wide dress and along her shoulders. Alongside the big, high-class, mostly-black-with-white-and-red-around-the-edges dress she wore, she had on a pair of ribbons on her head, similar to Blake. Only, these were styled far differently, and resembled a pair of black-coloured rabbit ears. Then they turned, and the students could see that they weren't ribbons at all, they actually WERE Faunus ears. Strange ones at that, considering how they didn't have the same colour as her blonde hair, styled into pigtails. In her hands was a pink plush toy in the shape of a bat.

Next to her stood an elderly person dressed in an elaborate suit, coloured dark green with gold trimmings. There wasn't much to remark, really, other than his long, silver hair tied into a ponytail, the gold pocket watch he was looking at, the black cat-themed umbrella he was holding, and the silver wolf's tail swishing back and forth lazily. Behind him was a silver aircraft, similar to a jet, refueling at a station.

"Hey… sis…" Despite being covered in soot (except for his wings, which for some odd reason were a golden brown…) Jaune was able to smile weakly, and wave his right hand at the little girl. "Just chatting with a friend."

"A friend, hmm? I see." Yang nudged Weiss with her elbow.

"Hey, Weiss-cream? This girl seems to be even more obnoxious than you. Ain't that a… SHOCKER?" Despite what she just said, everyone could clearly see the little rabbit girl turn to the side in an attempt to hide her giggling. "Wait, did she laugh at my pun? I take it back, she's better than Weiss in every way."

"HEY!" Coughing awkwardly, Jaune shook off all the soot and brown stuff before holding his arm out.

"Friends, I present to you my dear younger sister, Rachel A. Arc. I'd also like to introduce my… _mute_ grandfather, Valkenhayn Arc."  
 _Hmm… Valkenhayn is far too accustomed to being a butler, so I doubt that he'll refer to me as anything but Master Jaune. Let's see if we can't assure his silence…_ He turned to his friends, a hand on the side of his mouth. _  
_"Just to be clear, my grandfather's kinda… mute. So, be a bit considerate." He slyly sent a wink towards his sister and butler, and they nodded in confirmation. "Anyways, sister, grandfather, these are my friends." He gestured over to the group, who waved and curtsied (well, only Weiss curtsied) at the pair.

"I see… pray tell, brother, which ones are in your team?" Nora started to jump up and down, waving her hands around like a school child.

"OOH! OOH! Jaune-Jaune, let's do THAT thing! Y'know, the thing we came up with two weeks ago!"

"Brother, may I ask what she is referring to?" The blonde's face had a light shade of red on it, and a small sheen of sweat.

"Well, it's kinda embarrassing, buuut… We'll do it anyway. Alright then, Team!" He clapped his hands together, and the members of Team Juniper lined up together, Ren between Nora and Pyrrha. "Alright, let's get in formation! Hah!" Raising their knees that were closes to each other, Pyrrha and Nora each held one arm out away from their bodies, the arms that were farthest from each other, and bent their other arms, placing their fists over their hearts.

"Pyrrha!"

"Nora!"

Dramatically, Ren flipped up into the air, while Jaune was running toward where the two girls in JNPR were standing. Dropping to his knees, he slid forward, stopping just in front of the two. Suddenly, he brought his two arms downward at angles, while his wings went up, forming an X shape with his body.

"Jaune!" At the same time, Pyrrha and Nora leaned in towards Jaune, putting their feet down before swinging their arms across their bodies, ending with their arms closest to Jaune forming a triangle with his wings and their heads in the crook of their other arms. At this time, Ren had landed square onto Jaune's back, feet firmly planted, and both his hands raised to his hands in a way that resembled a salute.

"Ren!"

"Yo! JNPR Tokusentai!" Everyone around them looked at the team with blank stares as Team JNPR was sweating nervously, except for Nora who was unembarrassed by such an act.

The deafening silence went on for a while before the entire group started to giggle and snort, before laughing, before pretty much dying of asphyxiation at how utterly silly that entire exchange was; even Weiss and the seemingly-very-uptight Rachel were grasping at their hearts due to laughter. The only person not guffawing was Valkenhayn, who merely smiled and clapped while reminiscing about the good old days with his team and their goofish antics. After some time, the laughter died down.

"Arc, if I may ask, where and when did you come up with that idea?"

"Well, Weiss, a couple of days ago, I was talking with my older sister, Doreen Arc, who's a big fan of Mistralian live-action superhero shows. Nora overheard us, and eventually we came up with the 'Leaning Tower of Juniper'." Yang put an arm around his shoulder.

"Gotta say, Chicken Joy, that was actually really cool." Rachel turned her attention from a conversation with Ruby on their similar clothing styles to a certain yellow sun dragon.

"Excuse me, but might I ask why you called my brother… 'Chicken Joy'?"

"Oh, well ya see, there was this one time we were at a Vale Fried Chicken-" Jaune clamped his hand over her mouth.

"And that's enough of that, thank you very much Yang but I would rather not be reminded of that particular event. Please." He felt her head nod in his hands, and he let go. Rachel looked at him with a blank look on her face.

"… Quite. So," She then turned to look at the members of Team RWBY. "I take it that you girls are the 'Sister Team' to JNPR, RWBY?"

"Yup! I'm Ruby, that's Yang, my older sister; this here is Blake, her partner; and this is MY partner, Weiss!" As they all said their hellos, the black hare cupped a hand to her chin and looked long and hard at the Heiress.

"A name relating to the cold, white hair, and an air similar to that of a princess… you must be a Schnee, am I correct?" As her staring continued, Weiss started to sweat profusely from nervousness and only stopped when the Bunny turned her gaze to her brother. "I am impressed, brother. You really have limited your disdain for her family to just the patriarch."

"Why would I blame her for the sins of her father?" This caused both the heiress and the rabbit to smile.

"Well, I believe we have used up enough time already. We will now-"

"WAIT!" Looking around for the source of the noise, the group was slightly surprised to see a golden monkey running toward them, wearing an open collared shirt, shorts, sandals, and holding on to a rather nice straw hat. He skidded to a stop, and began to gasp for air, hands on his knees. "Oh. My gods. This campus is huge." Jaune regarded him with some contempt.

"Sun Wukong. I really can't believe you took this long to get here. I actually forgot that you were invited to come along with us. Also, why are you exhausted from running around campus? Isn't Shade in Vacuo the same size?"

"Okay, for one, I moved to Mistral from Vacuo and I go to Haven, not Shade."

"Wait, Shade's bigger than Beacon!"

"Hey, they at least have maps there! And I guy like me, who got here illegally and without his team, can't really ask people for directions, now, can't he? … Oh, hey there, Rachel. What's up?"

"Don't think you can talk to my younger sister so casually!"

"Oh come on!" After a beat, Rachel resumed what she was saying.

"We will now proceed to leave Beacon Academy for the uninhabited island we are to stay in for three days time. Everyone, please make your way aboard… my grandfather's Silver Bullet." As the airship pulled up next to them, Ruby and Nora squealed with glee. The doors barely opened, and already they were inside the craft, running down the short aisles. As the rest of them boarded, all of them (Save the Arcs and Valkenhayn) noted the quality of the aircraft.

They noted rich, red carpet that was spread throughout a beige interior. The seats, all ten of them, had belts, the ability to recline, and were made of leather that was top-notch and high quality. In the back, there was a small kitchen connected to a half-bathroom. At the other end of the ship, near where they presumed the pilot's cabin to be as Valkenhayn had entered it and it was near the nose of the vehicle, there was a separate shower room. Yang whistled.

"This is some pretty fancy stuff you got here. I didn't know your family was loaded, Jaune."

"Ermm, well, when you pretty much migrate every other month, you can make a pretty nice living off of trading." Quickly, he took out his scroll and typed out something, showing it to Rachel with slight irritation on his face. _Really? You guys had to use THIS ship? Not any from, say, our Sky Knights?_ The hare took out her own scroll, and showed him HER message.

 _Do you really think I would allow myself to ride in such a common vessel?_

As Ruby and Nora bounced up and down on the seats, with their partners scolding them for doing so, Sun raided the fridge, finding a nice and ripe banana. "Well, I guess being younger siblings to the owner of the Hawke Trading Company has its perks." Weiss turned to face them.

"Wait, _the_ Hawke Trading Company? The second most influential company in the world after the Schnee Dust Company? You three are related to the CEO? Wait, how come this… riff-raff over here knows this type of information, while WE don't?"

"Yeah, Sun and I have a bit of a… rocky history together. Also, no more information has to be said, thank you very much! My situation is kinda like Pyrrha's, you know, the 'try to keep a low profile' thing. Although, I guess the success rate is a bit different, huh?" Upon hearing this, said champion became very depressed, and was wallowing in sadness in a corner of the ship. "Wait! Pyrrha! Don't cry!" As he went to cheer up the Spartan, Rachel felt as though she forgot to tell them something.

 _It's most likely not a problem._

"Alright guys, welcome to your destination." As the pilot touched down on the white, sandy beach, a certain hyperactive duo pretty much phased through the walls and out onto the sand. Already, they were making castles and already changed into a red-and-black one piece for Ruby and a pink two-piece with strings for Nora. As the two played, the rest of the group, all in their bathing suits, descended from the airship, and took in the marvelous view of the tropics. Valkenhayn was the last one to get off the vehicle, having a short exchange with the guy piloting it.

"Alright, Sir Valkenhayn, I'll come to pick you guys up in a week. As my dad James McCloud would say, 'Never NOT say see you later'!" With those parting words, the craft hovered into the skies, and launched itself to the nearest INHABITED island, for a bit of refueling and vacation for himself.

A slightly worried Pyrrha in a bronze bikini with red trimmings tried to resuscitate Ren, clad in an emerald green wetsuit, who had suffered a nosebleed when Nora had abruptly changed right next to him. Meanwhile, the other girls were already setting up beach towels on spots they claimed. Lying down with a nice book to read, Blake sunbathed in her black string of a one piece while next to an empty yellow towel with a dragon's face on it. The owner of said towel was currently splashing around in the water in her skimpy orange bikini, having a splash fight with the hyperactive duo.

Rachel and Weiss, hoping to retain their pale pigment, wore long sundresses in their respective colours and set up shop underneath a large palm tree while sipping the juices from a coconut that Valkenhayn, who wore a jade Aloha shirt and beige khakis, had split in two. At the very top of the tree, hoping to distract himself from all the skin being shown, Sun, wearing his standard open shirt but now wearing golden swimming trunks, ate a banana while spying on his old, winged, friend. Said friend was exercising by flying above the treetops of a jungle on the island, happy to finally be let out after being put under house arrest due to the incident at the docks.

The blonde eagle touched down next to his sister, who calmly handed him a coconut to drink out of. Saying his thanks, he noticed something that was carved onto the palm tree, but a bit ways off the ground. Focusing his eyesight on the engraving, he almost spit out his drink from how familiar they were.

"Rachel!" Said girl looked at him with a questioning gaze. "You booked us a trip for, out of all places, Tangaroa Island?"

"Oh, this is Tangaroa? The place we would occasionally train and-or-play at when we were younger? I never knew."

"Rachel, nostalgia is fine and all, but you do realize why this place was used for training, right?" Their argument had caught the attention of a nearby heiress and a curious monkey. Sliding down the tree, Sun regarded the two with curiosity.

"Hey, uh, guys? Anything wrong?"

"Yes, Arc, is there anything wrong?" Jaune looked to them almost pleadingly.

"Please tell me you guys brought your weapons or something." Weiss looked away nervously while Sun proudly whipped out his staff.

"Never leave home without my two Bangs!"

"Well, I brought some small Dust Canisters to use for recreational purposes, but… No." At this point, the entirety of the main cast had wandered over to where Jaune and the others were. He asked them if THEY had their weapons, but only the patch sisters brought their weapons.

"Wait… we all came to this island, knowing that no person lives here, knowing there'd be no amenities or other stuff we could use for our leisure, right? Please tell me you guys knew that and at least brought some tools or something." Blake held up a fishing rod, but everyone else sans the blondes, the cat, and the rose all felt pretty stupid for going underprepared.

"Well, Jaune, that doesn't really seem like much of a problem. After all, I don't really need Akoúo̱ to, say, build a tent or start a fire."

"Excellent point, Pyrrha! But, concerning this island, making a camp on this beach is the least of our worries." Far off in the distance, the group heard the sounds of the island jungle's animals, namely high-pitched hooting and hollering, presumably from a troop of monkeys. Judging by the rustling of the trees and the continually increasing volume of the calls, they were approaching the beach too. Only Jaune, Rachel and Valkenhayn seemed apprehensive. "Well, see if you can't find a sharp stick to let your Aura flow through." Sun looked slightly offended, and partly afraid.

"Hey, what's wrong? They're just monkeys, after all. Right?"

"No, they're not normal monkeys! They're Capuchins, a type of-" As he said this, the first one appeared before him. It stood at around eight feet in height, and was covered in the standard black fur with black skin, bone armor covering its chest, partly obscuring its face, and on its elbows, knees, shoulders, hips, and human-esque knuckles. Oh, and it was also covered on its long tail, with the bone being segmented and having ivory spikes on it. The part of the face that was not protected by bone looked as if it had been melted off, with black ichor dripping from it, falling in front of a single red orb that was it's eye. And to top it all off, the thing had huge pearly white teeth it no doubt wanted to stain red. Behind it was a group of red dots, no doubt signifying the rest of its kind.

"… So, Chicken Joy, would you call this situation quite Grimm?"

"Shut up, Yang!"

* * *

 **A/N: Nice, short, and a bit sweet. That's how I write, for sure.**

 **Now, I have to be honest with you guys, you may have to wait a while until the next chapter. I'm trying to juggle five stories right now, and seeing if I can't alternate weeks with them. Like, write this for one week, write "A Broken Soul" for another week, focus on "Jaune Arc: Monster Hun-err, Summoner!" for another one. And even THAT schedule isn't assured, because I have to deal with school. So yeah, apologies, and just try to wait it out.**

 **Now, keep those reviews coming and I'll see you sons of guns again... next time.**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: Good Lord! Advanced Placement Exams, Performance Finals, regular Finals... I haven't been able to stick as closely to the schedule I set myself... and I think I may have lowered the quality of this chapter by trying to rush it... damn.**

 **SaintMichael95: I no birthed in da USA, but I live long enough in there to have no bad garmmar. I now have to apologize to my History and Literature teachers for that. Also, don't like him being bisexual? Then don't read. Simple as that.**

 **Nexus Bladeguard: Ask away! And thank you.**

* * *

"Hey!" As Jaune decapitated one of the monkey-themed Grimm in front of him, he blocked another one behind with his shield while jumping over one that had tried to go for his feet. Reacting quickly, he stomped on the spine of the one under him, and slashed in a wide arc around him, causing substantial damage but not forcing them back. "Can I get any help over here?"

"Sorry, Chicken Joy!" Yang fired back, while also blasting a head or two off with her shot-gauntlets. "I think we're all kinda busy!"

"Sorry, Jaune! But she's right! Too bad I didn't bring Milo or Akuo, or anything metallic!"

"I Know, right? Can't really cut anything with stone or wood!"

"Nora, you're using a hammer. A blunt weapon." Gritting his teeth, Jaune looked around. Their little group, their little vacation, was currently being bathed in a sea of black bodies and dark ichor. They were barely able to hold their own against such a huge group of soulless primates. Jaune, Sun, Yang and Rwby were easily able to slice, dice, and explodonate the troop of Grimm, having been the only ones that brought their custom, specialized weapons. And, even though they didn't have their own high-powered weapons them, the rest of Teams RWBY and JNPR were able to make do with wood and stone.

Jaune didn't bother looking towards his sister and butler; he could see the lances of thunder raining down from the sky, and the gleam of Valkenhayn's crystal claw-ntlets as he savagely, yet also with refined class, dispatched the apes.

And while they were doing relatively well, what with this particular species of Grimm being even weaker than Beowulves, there was a hell lot more of them than any Beowulf pack. And they were definitely wearing down the group's stamina and Aura reserves; Weiss was starting to stab less deeply, Sun's rapid-fire strikes were starting to slow down. They'd been stuck in this melee for a long time, and Jaune was pretty sure the sun was going down. No, wait a minute, the sun was going down!

"Wait, what?" Looking at the sky, he could see the oranges start to disappear and he could see the purples start to grow, to eventually encompass the skies above and plunge them into twilight. A pretty sight to the eyes, but not to the body. There was no way they could last that long against a seemingly endless horde of darkness.

 _Ah, crap, what're we going to do? If only I had decided to bring my special plant oils. Screw me for forgetting them. I could've used some Energizer Oil to keep up my stamina, or applied Hyper Aura Oil to Crocea Mors. Actually, why didn't I bring them to this island? There were definitely some oils that would be useful if stuck on a deserted island… Ah, I can't think about that right now. What can I do now? What can I do to blow away all these Capuchins? …_

With a big gulp of air, Jaune stuffed Crocea Mors into his sheath and folded it, reverting from shield form to sheath form. Raising his sword above his head, and gripping the handle with both hands, he quickly spun around. His aura gathered around him, and so did cutting winds, forming into a large whirlwind. It sucked in a large group of the primates, and blew some others off the isle. But for those that were able to avoid being sucked up, Jaune, with mighty effort, swung his weapon like a baseball bat, sending the tornado forward and decimating many of the Grimm… whose positions were soon taken over by others, making the act useless.

"Oh, you have to be kidding me!" As he prepared to do it again, one of the larger Grimm specimens raised a hand up into the air. All fighting ceased, and everyone else looked at the dark monkey curiously. It climbed up to the top of a nearby tree, and with one hand pointed at the setting sun and the incoming darkness before clasping both hands together and putting them against the side of its head. Chittering about themselves, the group of monkeys decided to vacate the beach, and ran deep into the island jungle. The only traces of their former occupation of the wave-beaten sands were animal tracks and wounded, weary Hunters.

"… What the heck was that? Hey, Wukong, d'ya think you can explain?" Upon hearing this, Blake dropped the fishing rod and the pointed stick she was using as weapons, and stared at Jaune judgingly.

"Really, Jaune? You had to go there? Can't you let… whatever happened between you two go?"

"Hey, that was more of a little joke than an insult. And yes, I can see myself forgiving him sometime in the future. But not any time soon." With a resigned sigh, Sun stowed away Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang. He then looked at Jaune with a small grin, teeth showing and shining, and spread his arms wide, almost as if to hug Jaune.

"C'mon, be a gentlemen and do as the lady asks of you. Wanna make it up with a hug?"

"Maybe later, and no." Holding his chin, Ren thought about what the Grimm just did: abandoning them.

"That's unimportant right now. What we need to do is to figure out why those Capuchins ran away, even though they had a clear advantage." They all agreed, and they got to thinking up explanations for what just occurred. As they did, Ruby noticed something a bit out of place.

"Hey, has anyone seen Nora?"

"…" None of them knew where she was, but they did see the footprints of her sandals, which had her personal emblem on their soles, in the sand and heading into the forest. Ren could feel his eye twitch because of what his childhood friend apparently did.

As the group was about to form a search party to enter the jungle, the Faunus among them heard something. It was a mix of two sounds: the sound of something flying through the air, and the sound of someone whooping and hollering.

"Oh, what is that wretched noise? Dear brother, can you do something about it?"

"No, but it sounds like it's getting closer…"

"It sounds airborne…" Their companions looked to the sky, wondering exactly what they were talking about. But then they heard the mysterious sound, and the Faunus were able to spot the source of it: A pinkish-coloured speck flying the sky in their direction. Half a second later, the sand right next to them was thrown up several meters into the air, a crater was made, and a teitching, half-alive Ren was buried under a Valkyrie, grinning like an idiot.

"Hi guys! What's up? I just went on this CRAZY walk through the woods. You would not be-LIEVE your eyes! I swear, I saw like, ten MILLION fireflies! And beetles! And other bugs. It was kinda gross. But they were kinda cool! And so were all the plants. There was this one plant, this one flower, the size of an umbrella! It didn't smell like a flower, though. It smelled like trash. Oh, and there were so many pretty birdies there too! All in shades of green, red, blue… no pink though. That makes me a bit sad. Pink IS my favorite color. That's why Ren has a streak of pink in his hair! I dyed it for him. It makes him look even cuter! Has anyone seen Ren?"

Everyone there was looking at her with… odd faces. After a pause, a small beat of silence accompanied by a bird cawing, Pyrrha pointed to the mass of flesh Nora was currently on top of. Nora looked down, and immediately jumped off of her childhood friend.

"Whoopsie! Sorry, Renny!" He was currently flattened, almost like a pancake or a sheet of paper. Grabbing Ren's thumb, she closed her lips around it and began blowing air, reinflating the poor boy into his original shape. Once back on his own two feet, Ren did nothing more than rub his poor, aching head.

"Nora, what did I tell you last time about launching yourself into the air to travel somewhere?"

"Oh, relax! Everyone made it off that cruise ship alright." Feeling enough is enough, Weiss stepped into the middle of things, and gave Nora a pointed look.

"Okay, Nora, where were you? Why were you traversing in the jungle? In a place like this, with GRIMM running amok, we have to stick together for safety! Not to mention the fact that Ren probably has a concussion or something."

"Actually, that's not true. I don't have a concussion. I do feel something wrong with my spine, however." Nora waved him off.

"Oh, don't be so dramatic, Ren. Besides, that was fun! I've never seen a geyser like that before! I mean, sure the ground around it looked kinda old, and the geyser LOOKED ancient, but I was faithful it could bring me back to the camp." Everyone nodded, and then Weiss started to move her hands like a wheel and axle.

"Okay, and? What else? Why did you go into the jungle? Anything else you learned that's useful?"

"Wait, Weiss, how is a geyser useful? Other than easily getting from one part of the island to another."

"It gets us freshwater."

"HUSH! Listen, or I won't tell you guys my secret." That shut everyone up. "Okay, so while I was bashing on the capuchins, I thought they looked kinda cute when they ran away. So I chased after them, and they led me to their little own grove of trees. It was like an entire park filled with hammocks! And they were all hanging from the trees, vines, and leaves like from their tails! Like bats! Some of them even looked like bat-sloths when they did that." They all looked to Ren.

"Bat-sloths?"

"We've travelled a lot."

"Oh, and then one after another, they all started closing their eyes. Then they started snoring. Can you believe it? The monkeys fell asleep! I was like, oh, they're so cute! I wanted to keep one as a pet. But then I tried grabbing one. Y'know, plucked it right from the tree! Then I shook it to wake it up. But, it didn't wake up. So I shook it some more. Then I accidentally broke it. And it never woke up during all that shaking. Man, they sleep like rocks! And they didn't do anything. So I got bored, and I walked away. Then, right next to all the trees they were sleeping in, I fell into a hole in the ground! Then I got blasted out by water. Then I landed on Renny here!"

They all processed this information with some level of doubt. After all, Grimm were Grimm, and it wasn't that easy for them to accept that soulless creatures hellbent on exterminating Humans and Faunus alike could even fall asleep, as if they were normal animals. What a weird idea.

"Sleeping Grimm exist?"

"Well, Yang," Pyrrha spoke up. "Grimm are creatures we don't know much about. Most of what they are is a mystery. But they exist, they are soulless, and they can take forms similar to other creatures. They can do things that use up a large amount of energy; it's not surprising they would be able to restore it by conventional means."

"Mmm… I guess…"

Jaune, out of nowhere, put a large piece of wood in the center of the group, and put a huge piece of salmon on it.

"Well, we should probably use the nighttime to get some resources, and to make some sort of shelter. Some of us will go gathering for fruits and other edible plants while me and Blake do some fishing for something big, with this salmon as bait. Everyone else, try and look for a cave or something. After that, we can look for leaves that we can use as mattresses or something." Taking Crocea Mors, he cut the salmon's spinal bones and rib bones out. Grasping them in his hand in a way that the bones were indiscernible, he held them out. "Alright guys, pick a bone. Anyone with a rib, find food. Anyone with a spine, look for a good cave." All of them grabbed one, except for Sun, who just stood there, arms crossed and face pouting.

"Hey, can't I come with you guys or something? It'd be easier to fish in a group, y'know, and my clones could definitely help. Do some blast fishing, pre-cook the fish."

"Well, aside from what damage that could do to coral reefs and fish we don't want to catch, we don't necessarily need help, Wukong. Besides, you're much better at foraging for food or shelter than trying to catch fish. How many rods have you broken again over the years?" With a resigned sigh, the monkey grabbed one of Jaune's bones. But not before a certain black cat had elbowed the eagle in the ribs, and shot him a pointed look. "But your offer is appreciated."

With the lots having been drawn, they split into their groups. Group A, procurement of edible plant matter, consisted of Ruby, Ren, Nora, Sun and Rachel Arc. Group B, searching for a nice little hovel or something to temporarily call home, had Valkenhayn, Weiss, Pyrrha and Yang. As they each left the beach to do their respective jobs, bringing along their makeshift (actual in the case of Yang, Ruby and Sun) weapons for extra protection, Jaune and Blake had left for a nearby rock outcropping that was directly in front of a coral reef.

Jaune changed from his normal clothes and armor into a pair of pure-white swimming trunks. As he stretched his wings and prepared himself to fly out and catch something, Blake looked at him thoughtfully. Mostly, she wondered why he was on rather negative terms with her… accomplice, her acquaintance, Sun Wukong. She knew that they've met before somewhere, sometime before Jaune's enrollment in Beacon. From what she was able to hear, they were once friends. What was that that made Sun so remorseful towards Jaune, and why was the bird giving him a cold shoulder? She had opened her mouth to voice these questions before Jaune beat her to it.

"I believe I know what you're thinking. It concerns me and Sun, right? How our current relationship is?"

"Do you really have to ask that?"

"Do YOU?" He didn't have to look back to see her unamused expression. "Well, I don't really want to talk about what happened between us before. And, well, I hate myself a bit in regards to still holding a grudge over what happened between Sun and I. I know it's a bit petty. But, for what he did, I can't really apologize, really forgive him… at least not yet."

"Oh, that's… *sigh* okay, before I go on a rant, how many years ago was this incident?"

"Well, the last time me and my family of migrants passed through Vacuo was on my 15th birthday, so around two and a half years back."

"Two and a half years? Why would friends like you two hold a grudge for that long? I can't make sense of that, it's bull!"

"Yes, Blake," He turned around and gazed at her with burning eyes. "I know it's crap! I know it seems petty! But, I just can't let it go. I want to let it go. But my mind and my feelings don't want to cooperate." He sat down, legs dangling off of the edge and going just above the water. Blake sat down next to him, staring at his visage. She put a hand on his shoulder.

"Jaune… you can't just let your past hold you in check like this. You-"

"Stop." She did. "Before you say anymore, I want to ask you this- have you ever been with someone near and dear to you, someone who did something that broke your heart?"

"… I don't know."

"Wait, you don't know? Not a yes, not a no, but an IDK?"

"Well, there was this guy I knew, back in the White Fang. I admired him, for sure, but I'm not quite sure if I did love him. But he… liked me. He wanted to get in a relationship, and I agreed. But I should've known better, known from the start what that would entail. It wasn't a relationship I enjoyed."

"So I take it he's part of the reason why you left?"

"Yeah."

"Well, that's definitely different from what me and Sun were like. We were happy together, we enjoyed each other's company… but those were lies. He told the truth, thinking I wasn't around to hear it. He shattered that relationship."

"Jaune, if that bridge between you and Sun broke… all you need to do is take the pieces and rebuild it. It won't be the same bridge from before, but since you guys were friends, wouldn't it be enough to let bygones be bygones?" They sat there in silence, the sun having finished its descent and the broken moon now barely baring its head above the horizon. After thinking for a bit, Jaune stood up, brandished his sword and unfolded his wings o their maximum length.

"The thing that kept me from a resolution the most was a lack of experience in this subject, no sort of helping hand to guide me. My family was of no help, since none of their relationships have ever been as strained as mine. The same went for any of my friends… but now, someone's given me a starting point. A small idea to build upon my own thoughts about this matter. That, I will do as I hunt for some big catch out in the ocean." He looked at her, small grin adorning his face. "Thanks, Blake."

And he shot into the air of the evening sky.

* * *

 **A** **/N: I no gud with these sappy moments. I swear, I can never think up the right dialogue for the situation...**

 **Well, guys, I guess I'll be seeing you all again in... about a month? It's basically summer now, so I'll have some extra time to write these chapters. I also might have enough time to write them ahead of schedule, so that's a thing.**

 **Anyways, see ya guys later!**


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: ... Hello. Here is another chapter. I believe this chapter to be below mediocre in terms of quality.**

 **Fantasy OH YEA: I enjoy that ship, but not more than... Arkos... *starts to cry in the corner***

 **7ima: The heck does that mean? Look at works like Farenheit 451, or go way back to something like Beowulf, or you can even look at Gilgamesh. Don't they all have more than one person talking per chapter? Seriously, please explain.**

 **Now let's begin.**

* * *

"Hah… hah… hah…" As the last wispy winds left the beach and the last ice crystal fell off a Dust-made icicle, the troop of capuchins had once more retreated into the forest, ready for slumber.

As for the humans and Faunus, they were also ready to rest. And by that, I mean they were ready to just drop everything and flop onto the sandy beach.

"Hoo… ha… y'said this place was for training, right Chicken Joy?"

"Y-yeah…"

"I think I'm starting to see why…" Weakly, Jaune shook his wings around, trying to dislodge particles of sand and loose feathers.

"Well, I think I'm ready for a bath near that old, faithful geyser Nora found. Is there anyone else with me?" Everyone else raised their hands in agreement, except for the Arc siblings. Both younger sister and older brother elected to stay behind and watch the camp.

With heavy footfalls, the bathing group retreated into a small shelter they found. It was a cave along the beach, with walls of thick stone and a small opening that allowed only one person at a time. It was a good position to defend. Aside from storing all their luggage, the cave also had mattresses made of leaves and a huge stockpile of plant matter and mushrooms they gathered from the forest. A perfect hideaway.

As the group gathered their things to visit the nearby springs, a certain monkey started to panic. He had thought that he gathered everything he needed, but something vital to him, important to him in both a physical and spiritual way, was missing.

 _Mr Banana! Oh crap, where is he! Without him, I'd be a goner! I can't bathe without him! If I don't have him, my super-special squeaky-toy/ soap, my skin'll absorb all the water, swelling up and preventing me from even moving. Without it I'll drown! Not to mention I won't have anything to soothe my nerves, especially with Jaune being the stubborn ass he is…_

As he ranted to himself, he felt a hand grip his shoulder. Turning around, he saw the winged teen he was just thinking of.

"Here, I think you dropped this." He held out his hand, and Sun almost squealed when he saw the banana-shaped soap bar/ squeaky toy. "What, you thought I forgot about your special thing here?"

"OH MY GOD THANK YOU! Erm, ahem… thanks." They stood there awkwardly. "Well, I guess I'll see you later then, alright?" As he left for the bath, Jaune called out after him.

"Yeah, don't get lost, Sun." To anyone else, that might've seemed normal. But the monkey boy noticed something big: Jaune didn't call him by his last name. He looked over his shoulder, finding the other Faunus pacing about their camp, flexing his wings every now and then.

 _I guess I have another thing to thank you about, huh?_

* * *

"So, Sun?" Having finally arrived at the boy's section of the little hot spring, which was located right next to the girl's but had a naturally lower elevation to make peeping impossible, Sun had barely dipped in when Ren had addressed him.

"Yeah?"

"How come Jaune never wants to go bathing with us?" Sun tapped his chin, thinking up some sort of acceptable answer. Sure, he knew that Jaune necessarily sensitive about his orientation, but he also knew that he'd only reveal it if he wanted to. The fact that Ren, his teammate and partner, didn't know the reason why Jaune preferred bathing alone or with family, meant that Jaune hadn't revealed it to him, or maybe even his other friends, just yet.

"Yeah, we want to know too!" Nope, they didn't know either, judging by how each of them were lined up at the edge of the girls' spring, only their heads above the water.

"Wait, how come you're asking me?"

"You've known him for the longest, right?"

"Why don't you ask- oh right mute grandpa. Ugh," He tried to think of a cover for Jaune. "Maybe he's embarrassed about how others see him." _Yeah, right. Rather than himself, he's more embarrassed about seeing others nude. Yup, a guy with ideals like his probably wouldn't even think of something about that unless with whatever dude or dame he's married to._

 _ **Foolish children,**_ Valkenhayn, Rachel Arc's personal butler currently posing as her and Jaune's mute grandfather, scoffed. _**Having served many male Arcs, and accidentally walking in on their private time (damn you Quagmire Arc), I know Jaune has nothing to be embarrassed of.**_

Ruby, oh so innocent, voiced her question.

"Embarrassed? About what?" Yang started to look at Sun with a killer glare.

"Yeah, about what?"

"You, know, like… size or width or something… of his muscles?"

"His muscles? But I've seen him shirtless so many times! He shouldn't be embarrassed about himself with pecs like-"

"R-Ruby! A-as your partner, can I ask that you please stop!" Yang turned to look at her partner.

"I'm not sure if I should tease Ruby or plot an unfortunate… 'accident' for Chicken Joy." A certain ginger started laughing out loud.

"As if you could pull a prank on Jauney! You could try, but it's gonna fail!"

"Crazy girl's right, you know?" The attention of the girls was shifted back down to the boys below. "Even among Faunus, Jaune's senses are top-notch, making pranks almost impossible. He'll always notice someone snickering in the background. Plus, he can tell when someone's attention is on them, even when that guy's looking away. I guess it's why his night vision ain't so good- it's a form of compensation." Blake looked at him, a thoughtful look adorning her face.

"… Tell us more about him."

"Eh?"

"You've known him for a while, you've known him since he was younger. What was he like? I'm also going to assume you've met with his family, so what were _they_ like?"

"Well, I can tell you this: Jaune was a lot less open when we first met. I don't know the exact details myself- apparently only his father and uncle knew what happened- but it made him a bit more… antisocial. It had a sort of negative impact on him in many different ways. I mean, when I first saw him walking in an open-air market, he was wearing all the leather."

"What do you mean 'all the leather'? That sounds kind of stupid."

"Boots, pants, jacket… You know. When a person looks… ugh… edgy. He wore, like, all the leather, all the chains, all the belts, all the red-and-black colors. Seriously, Jaune used to be so freaking edgy I got cut."

"How'd you get him to talk?"

"Umm… our first meeting didn't go so well."

 _Ooh! A foreigner. With those clothes, he's gotta have cash… bingo! I think I'll just take this wallet here… woah! A spin kick! That was kinda cool actually._

" _The wallet. Hand it over."_

" _Aw, come on. Can't you spare a lil' bit of change for a guy with no food, shelter, or job? Well, I have a job, but my manager just won't pay me."_

" _Alright, keep my wallet. I'll pay for your things… with a fist to the face."_

" _Wow, so edgy. See you on the rooftops!" Ha ha! No one can catch me on the roofs! Wait… are those wings?_

"Wow, Jauney used to be so cool!" Weiss pushed the ginger girl aside.

"So, your first interaction with the kind leader of one of Beacon's best teams was when he was trying to be… 'edgy'… and after you stole his wallet? How were you two friends after that?"

"We admired each other's skills in getting around cities… not to mention we both took out a bunch of goons trying to rob one of his younger sisters, Papi." Yang tilted her head in confusion.

"Pappy? As in another way to say grandpa?"

"No, Papi. P-a-p-i. If I remember right, she was adopted when the family visited Mistral. I guess some of that culture stuck when they decided to name her."

"Wait, adopted?"

"Yeah… that's stepping into dangerous territory, I won't talk about it." He noticed Valkenhayn glaring at him from the corner of his eye. "Actually, this entire talk has been nothing but dangerous territory. How about you guys ask the Faunus in question when you have free time?"

"No! We want to learn more about the embarrassing stuff Jaune did when he lived in Vacuo, and there's no way he's going to tell us about that himself! Come on, monkey boy, talk!"

"Yang, that sounded kinda racist."

* * *

"Bye! See ya next time!" The group waved goodbye at the departing airship. Having been picked up that morning, before another Grimm raid happened, they were full of energy. Even dragging along a boatload of suitcases didn't wear them out, and as soon as they dropped their stuff off at Beacon they hit the city one more time. Well, most of them weren't worn out. As the girls chatted, Ren and Jaune slumped down on a bench.

"Seriously, how come they aren't tired? We packed up, rushed inside a bullhead, and had to drag a mountain of luggage up to the dorms."

"Well, Jaune, you did say 'we'."

"… Oh yeah, you're right." The winged Faunus let out a tired sigh. _Why were being treated as pack mules? I need to go somewhere quiet and relaxing, a place to bury my mind in… Wait, I know a place!_ With a small amount of renewed vigour, Jaune happily marched off. Yang noticed him go.

"Hey, Chicken Joy! Where ya headed?"

"Just a little shop called Tukson's." Blake's eyes lit up. Within 0.1 seconds, Jaune found her at his side.

"Tukson's Book Trade? You go there?"

"Not… regularly." The two of them started walking. "I mostly pay that old puma a visit from time to time, since we're old… aquaintances."

"Really? Same here." They suddenly felt arms around their necks, and an incredibly goofy smile between their faces.

"Oh come on. You two can't go on a date without your third wheel!" Blake's immense blush could be seen 2 miles away in the dead of night during an Atlesian blizzard.

"WHO SAID ANYTHING ABOUT A DATE!" Her other blonde companion, bless his soul, looked at her strangely.

"Blake? You have a fever or something?" She shook her head.

"Never mind. Anyway, sure, you can come along. It'd be good for you to get your head out of the clouds and into a book."

"What does that mean?"

"Well, Tukson's store IS a book shop." The blonde with wings chimed in.

"And out of the rooftops, being chased by cops. You can't argue that this is a safer, more legal way to explore Vale. Speaking of which, what were you doing when I first saw you in Vale?"

"Oh, you know… stuff…" Sun didn't have the mood in him to prove his old friend right by explaining that he had just stowed away on a 4.5 star luxury liner. No, instead he kept the two from prying into his activities by asking them about certain Vale landmarks. These included statues, buildings, and that one infamous Valean corner-store nicknamed the Moider Croger because of several murders.

"Wait, do people still go shop there?"

"They won't anymore, because in a few days that place's getting demolished. Hopefully, they don't accidentally hit Tukson's shop, which is right next to it. See, it's right over there." Lo and behold, the angelic blonde Faunus was right. Standing in front of them, smelling like crisp pages with a hint of ink, was a book store with the name Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the sun.

The atmosphere around the store was anything but the usual welcome air. Instead, the place looked gloomy, and the windows were tinted to their darkest setting, obscuring the view of the inside. That was something Tukson never did, unless it was closing time. Which, contrary to the flipped sign out front, it wasn't. Tukson always made sure to never close up shop early, and would always leave a note if he went anywhere for a while. Add to the fact that they all smelled a hint of rusty iron and plasma, and all three Faunus went into high alert.

Slowly, Jaune in the lead and Sun at the back, the trio went through the doors. All was quiet. The comics were up front as always, all the bookshelves were stacked as immaculately as before… no. They weren't. A small shelf, directly in front of the counter were Tukson usually stayed, had it's booked arranged rather messily. They were out of alphabetical order, and were pushed in jaggedly- some were pushed in all the way whereas others weren't. This was far from the OCD that Tukson displayed when managing his store.

Blake walked closer to the wall behind the counter. There was nothing there to be seen, but to be smelled… She crinkled her nose in disgust.

"Blood. And it's been there for… only a few hours, at best?"

"How much blood?"

"Judging by all OxiCleanse wafting in the air…" She looked at the two somberly. She didn't have to say anything, the look on her face an indication of her thoughts. Sun looked wide-eyed, knowing that he'd just been part of a murder investigation. Jaune, on the other hand, had his head hung low, arms crossed, and wings drooping. He already had an idea of who it was… or rather, which group.

"The White Fang must have found him…" Blake's bow became rigid, the ears behind it attentive. Sun voiced the question on her mind.

"How'd you know he was in the White Fang?"

"… The Hawke Trading Company, owned and managed by our sister, has, um, enough power to have a separate division of its security forces. Its an elite group, headed by my uncle himself, known as the Band of the Falcon." He instantly noted the recognition and surprise on their faces. His uncle's unit was infamous throughout the Faunus underworld, which includes groups like the Fang, for being Angels of Death and Justice, having utterly obliterated several drug rings, illegal munitions manufacturers, and having assassinated many prominent individuals. The only reason they weren't really known in professional media was because any survivors inexplicably went insane, destroying any credibility of their evidence. _That, along with the fact that they aren't part of the Company but rather my kingdom…_ Sun stepped forwards.

"All the insane guys were right. They do exist! But, how does this matter?"

"Well, one thing they specialize in is helping people escape from places, like the Schnee labour camps, or organizations, like the White Fang. That's when I first met the old puma- in the group's personal hanger, ready to welcome them back with food and drink." As he mused over their meeting, Blake touched the wall of the shop.

"He was an old partner of mine, and eventually became the one person I could turn to whenever our leader, Adam… anyway, he… was… A friend. And THIS-" She slammed her hand into the wood, splintering it. "Just…" She hung her head and started to shake. "I… I know this is… what happened if you try to leave. But… this…" Soon, she felt someone's handkerchief dabbing at her wet eyes, and looked to see a golden tail holding a banana-print piece of cloth.

"You know, if this makes you feel any better…" He put away the cloth, and looked at the two Faunus before him with a serious look. "I heard from a couple of thugs that the White Fang is holding an assembly at an abandoned factory nearby, and that any Faunus willing to join should come." He slammed his left fist into his right palm. "Why not crash the party?"

* * *

 **A/N: I don't know what I did with this chapter. It feels... ergh... not good. Pacing looks weird, and there are definitely parts I should have extended and parts that should be in a chapter of its own. I honestly don't even know how my older sister, going to University her in America and top of her AP Language Arts class convinced herself to convince me to publish this. This feels wrong, why did I make this?**

 **Anyways, review and PM me your thoughts and stuff. Screwthehype, out.**


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: School's started, and I hate it.**

 **Gruffard: Well, problem with that was that, I couldn't think of a nice ending to the chapter, and I messed myself up with that ending**

 **Dragil the alchemist: Well, you know YOUR opinion, and I know mine**

* * *

Rocks, craggy rocks, filled with holes, collided with each other. Bouncing off one another, they kept on crashing and bouncing, braking each other up into smaller pieces. Or at least, that's what some people believed. All they knew was that these chunks had once been whole. Now, they were broken, scattered. And, because of all their varying surface and their odd angles, the pieces of the moon reflected light back onto Remnant in odd ways.

Some places were illuminated, almost as if a spotlight from the heavens shone down on them.

Some places were darkened, as if a heavy cloud was passing by overhead.

Some places, such as a lone rooftop, had enough brightness. At least, that's what that person was thinking.

* * *

"So, you know, after I finished talking to you guys, I waited up on the roof for those two. And, to pass some time…"

* * *

Well, that, and how beautiful a night it was. Oh, and he was also thinking about that call he should be making.

* * *

"I decided to check up on my old man."

* * *

Ignoring the cacophony of people in the building he was standing on top of, Jaune Arc took out his scroll, his small personal scroll. A royal scroll, the symbol of his heritage and country proudly displayed on its back. He dialed a number on it and waited. One ring. Two rings. Three-

 _Click_ "BIG BRO!"

"Uwaah!" Falling flat on his ass, and luckily not over the edge (not that it would have mattered to someone with wings), Jaune stared somewhat blankly at the person who answered the call. However, looking at the jovial smile adorned on the receiver's face, Jaune couldn't help but also smile.

"Hello, Papi. How are you doing?"

"Great!" The person on the other side answered. It was a little girl, no older than ten, with baby blue hair and chestnut eyes. Just like her brother, she had feathery wings reminiscent of birds of prey. Unlike her big bro, though, she lacked hands to go with her wings. Truly, it was a miracle she could get inside her sakura-pink pajamas. "But we all miss you, though."

"You know, you could've gone with Rachel when she went to visit." She pouted.

"You know I can't go out. I'm still grounded."

"I warned you, trying to turn the fountain into juice was a bad idea. Speaking of bad ideas," He eyed the scenery behind her. Mahogany desks and chairs, velveteen carpet, and a whole slew of fancy decorations could be seen. "Why do you have father's phone? Unless the rules have changed, we aren't normally allowed in his study."

"I know that! I'm just here because dad told me to grab his scroll for him. C'mon, let's go!" As she exited the room, Jaune heard something that was somewhat alarming.

"Papi… was that a broken vase?"

"Nope!"

"Really?"

"Yup! I definitely wasn't flying around inside so I could get to dad faster!"

"… You know you aren't supposed to do that." The prine noted the sweat dropping off her face as she tried to think of a way out of this conversation. After a second, her face instantly beamed, and Jaune could feel that she stopped moving about.

"Hi dad! I got your scroll for you!" At a small shock since she found him so fast, Jaune had a small difficulty when a familiar face presented itself on the screen.

A familiar face. It was one of elegance, one of grace and dignity. It was a face that just beamed royalty, that exuded an aura of king. It was a face that Jaune knew had a silver spoon in its mouth for as long as it faced struggle. Struggle, like that which Jaune was about to tell him.

"Son," His father asked. "I did not expect you to call again so soon. You already sent me your report for the week."

"Is there anything wrong with wanting to check up on you? I am curious as to whether you're still seeing the Doctor."

"Worry not, I am. He says I am making great progress. But that is not why you called, is it?" Jaune took a sharp breath, and his father simply sighed. "What troubles you, my child?"

* * *

"Pfft, what, did you think I was gonna tell him about my plans for the night?"

* * *

"… I might be getting into some mild trouble again."

"Is this… some continuation to the incident at the docks?" Jaune didn't have to tell him anything. His visage conveyed the message. At this, the king sighed and rubbed his temples. "You do know how hard it was for me to diffuse the situation with the Valean councilors? After all, the equivalent of a foreign ambassador was sucked into what was essentially a large street fight. That makes me wonder, why are you calling about trouble?"

"I am calling so that, when the trouble is seen by the public eye, you can more easily formulate a response."

"Why are you even getting into this trouble in the first place?"

"Because I would inevitably be dragged into it. After all, conflict never seems to leave my side, our family's side. Especially if that conflict brings with it the White Fang."

"… I see." They stared at each other for a while. "Knowing your stubborn sense of justice, and your disagreement with the White Fang, you would likely attempt to do whatever it is you plan on doing, even if I expressly forbid you from doing it." His father, in all his glory, didn't even put up a face of resignation. "Message me the details from your scroll; asking you to explain would take too long, and I have a meeting to go to.

"Yes, father. Good night." Turning the screen off, Jaune walked to the edge of the rooftop. With one foot over the edge, he let gravity pull the rest of him down. Unfurling his wings, he pulled back up just before he hit the ground, and flew into the sky.

Passing a few trees and a stray owl, Jaune perched atop a familiar statue. A huntsman and a huntress, swords gleaming and ready to smite a stone Beowulf. Dropping off, he waited for his cohorts to arrive. He spotted them both rounding a corner, one leading to the Eastern Beacon Dorms and one to their Western counterparts. Munching on a peach, Sun waved his arms.

"Hey!" Jaune greeted them both with a small nod. "Sorry we're kinda late, Jaune! My teammate was just really worried about how I wanted to spend my night. Seriously, he's like a mom or something!"

"It's fine, I know how teams can be overbearing a bit. Isn't that right, Blake?"

"Ugh. I took me forever to convince Weiss that I wasn't going to do anything rash, and it took even LONGER to stop Yang from… insinuating things between the three of us."

"Really? What kind of things?"

"Shameful things. Perverse things." She needn't say more.

"… Yeah, that would kinda be hard to explain. Well, anyways, you guys got your masks?" They revealed them, a pair of pearly white masks in the shape of a Grimm's ivory facial armor, before concealing them again. "Alright, let's go."

"So, uh, have you figured out our transportation problem? After all, the last airbus out of Beacon just left?"

"I got that covered." Reaching behind him, Jaune pulled out a long chain-link rope. Sun and Blake just stared at it, not knowing what to say. "… What?"

"… No. Just, no."

"What?"

"I'm-I'm not about to hold on for dear life on a rope suspended many, many metres in the air, and going at high speeds."

"Same here." Sun gagged. "I still get airsick thinking about the last time I flew with you." Jaune threw his arms up in frustration.

"Well, what do YOU guys want to do? Like we already said before, there's no airbus going out into Vale right now." The other two Faunus, the non-avian Faunus, just looked at each other.

"Well, we're both good at climbing up and down things."

* * *

"Wait wait wait," A pale-ish girl in a red hood wearing Gothic-Lolita clothing waved her hands rapidly in front of her face before she suddenly slammed her hands onto a table. "Did you guys actually try going down the Beacon Bluff? Which was right at the edge of the water?" She questioned the three Faunus students, all three sitting down in simple wooden chairs. The lights of the room they were in were dimmed, and it was mostly a single lamp that illuminated the room.

"Well, Ms. Officer Cookies McStache," Jaune pointed to the smaller girl's store-bought handlebar mustache. "Beacon Bluff does have a small pot at the very bottom, Dust knows why. Anyway, Ruby, I am just as surprised as you are. Even now, I still can't believe these two would decline my offer and just start descending."

"Quit wasting time, Arc." A snooty white-haired girl flipped her hair. "And then?"

"We found an abandoned rowboat," Blake began. "Lucky enough for us, it looked like it would stay afloat, even with three people riding in it. Me and Sun rowed along for about five minutes before Jaune got a little… impatient."

"I used my semblance to accelerate our boat. Well, my semblance, plus a nice-sized vial of air Dust."

"We almost lost Sun because we reached our very fast top speed way too suddenly."

"I did not!"

"Blake caught you by the tip of your tail only after Gambol Shroud's rope was unfurled to almost maximum length." A large, burly man with green hair crinkled his nose in slight disgust.

"So that's why his shirt smells like a bunch of otter piss." His blonde-haired team captain looked at him quizzically.

"Wait, Sage, how do you know that?" Weiss slammed her fist on the table.

"Focus! Now, what happened to you guys after you got on dry land?"

* * *

"Blech! This smells awful!" Sun blanched as he wrung out his shirt, and was disappointed at the river muck that stained the pure-white cloth. "This sucks."

"Just ditch it. It's not like that's a Gukki shirt or anything… right?" His friend gave him a look. "No. No way.

"Yeah, yes way. I can't just trash this shirt! It's freaking expensive!" Well, Jaune wouldn't put it past Sun to wear very high-end, very fashionable things. Despite his look as a rough, yet charming, person, Sun knew his fashion. He was surprised when he found out that Sun had about as much fashion sense as his sister, who owns the largest clothes-manufacturing business in Remnant. As for Jaune? He had none.

"So, could we like, bleach it?" The only female in the group just shrugged her shoulders and gave a sigh.

"So, could we like, move on already?" Donning her mask, Blake began to scale up the side of a quaint little family owned diner. The two dudes looked at each other.

"… Women," They said at the same time. Now, Sun was pulling a Blake and opted to jump from rooftop to rooftop. Jaune, on the underhand, just floated off into the sky and flew off into the night, in the direction of Vale's Old Industrial zone. As he flew over the buildings, it didn't take long for Blake and Sun to catch up with him, even though they were on foot.

"Alright Jaune, ready for the plan?"

"Hah! Please, I got this. I came with the plan." As he flew around, he saw a group of bright flashing lights, alternating between red and blue. "Oh hey, the Vale Police Department. Looks like a patrol squad."

"Wait, what? We better hide!" Taking out Gambol Shroud, she manipulated its jet-black ribbon to create a small hidey-hole for the three of them to fit inside. When she heard the sirens come closer, she tensed up, ready to try and run if necessary. She breathed a sigh of relief when they went outside of her hearing range.

"Um, Blake, why are we hiding from the cops?"

"It's well past curfew, and two of us are wearing White Fang masks. I don't want the police to jump to conclusions." Peering out of the little alcove, Jaune saw the squad head towards the Old Industrial District.

"Psst, guys. They're heading toward where the rally should be." Exiting their little hiding spot, the three of them rushed to the rally, only to find that the cops beat them there.

Currently, there was a large shootout right outside a nondescript warehouse. Grunts and officers hid behind cars and premade barriers, each one trying to take potshots at each other. The VPD had the place surrounded; it would be difficult, if not outright impossible, for anyone to sneak out… or in. This was exemplified when a girl with antlers tried to get out through a window, only to be assaulted by a hail of bullets. Judging from the lack of blood, either she had Aura or...

"Rubber rounds… That's gonna be somewhat of a problem. Unlike the VPD, those White Fang shooters aren't gonna refrain from killing." Blake tch'ed.

"That's not our only problem, Jaune." Her faced turned even more grim than before. "White Fang members aren't keen on giving away information, unless it's to other members. If those police are planning on taking them in for questioning, then chances are those goons are going to commit suicide the moment they're behind bars."

"Great, there goes our source of information for any big raids and stuff." The prince's eyes narrowed.

"Not exactly… Both of you are masters of infiltration, and Sun is a good thief. If you two could steal away one of the high-rank members, he's BOUND to give you the location of the next rally!"

"And just what will YOU do?" Right as he said this, a pair of heavily-armoured trucks crashed out of and through the walls of the warehouse, scattering a bunch of boys in blue.

"I'll see what the Fang has in those trucks." Nodding to each other, Sun and Blake slinked into the shadows. Jaune picked up a bunch of small pebbles before rising into the night sky.

Following the two trucks into the New Industrial district, Jaune took one of the tiny rocks. In one of his hands, he manipulated the air around his hand into a miniature whirlwind. Placing the projectile inside, he watched it spin inside, collecting speed. After gauging it to be sufficiently fast enough, Jaune focused his eagle-eyes on the truck at the back. Taking aim at a front tire, he sniped it, blowing a hole and forcing the truck to crash. Goons spilled out and its cargo spilled, but unfortunately for Jaune the other truck sped away.

"Well, one is better than none." Landing on the pavement, Jaune checked the terrorists. "Good, they're only unconscious. Time to see what little secret spilled out." Looking around the damaged vehicle, Jaune's eyes widened.

There, right in front of him, was a large mechanical object. It was humanoid in appearance, and looked like it could bench-press a building. There were laser cannons, machine gun turrets, and missile launchers. But the part that struck out to Jaune most was the logo on the side, a small thing that reminded him of the Symbol of Atlas, the world's most technologically advanced Kingdom.

"Oh no. This is gonna cause a lot of inter-kingdom chaos. I better-" And that's where the world around him exploded, knocking him out cold.

* * *

"So, what happened afterwards?"

"Well, the warehouse incident happened."

* * *

 **A/N: Damn college level US history... Man, It's eating away at my sanity. It hasn't even been a month since school started!**

 **Anyways, review and PM me. Peace out**


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: Let me say this now: I hated writing this. It's short, filler, and I just wanted to get this off my chest! It reminds me of the things I went through while writing this! Dear lord, I can't even write FanFiction in peace because of... things in my life, stressors that can't get OFF MY NECK! It's been a really rough week for me, and let's just say I had to finish this. I felt that I had to wrap this up, no matter what the quality. Hopefully, when the proverbial storm passes (luckily, my ordeal ends on Tuesday) I can actually get back to writing a good chapter while I write for my other stories.**

 **But right now, we have a thing we don't have to read.**

 **Oh, and the one review.**

 **Gruffard: What they did will be implied during the course of this chapter.**

* * *

"… and, as you know, I got captured and put inside a warehouse…"

* * *

Jaune groaned as he slipped back into consciousness. His back was aching, probably from the hard surface he was on. His foot shifted a little, and it felt like lead. He could hear a clinking sound whenever he moved it. He only thought of one question: Where the heck was he?

Movement, he felt movement. He could hear feet shuffling around. He felt a light, petite hand on his shoulder.

"Umm… sorry about this…" A hand started to caress his wing. "You have, uh, lovely feathers by the way…"

"Hey! Deery! Stop flirting with the captive."

"C-captain, I wa-"

"Now, now, Captain Gurhk. Let kids be annoying brats! And besides, what's wrong with a little… puppy love?"

"Tch. You're lucky my orders prevent me from harming you, human."

"Anyways, I think it's time for this little birdy to get out of his nest." He felt a sharp pain in his abdomen, and as spittle flew out, Jaune opened his eyes.

* * *

"… With one foot chained to the floor as the White Fang and Roman Torchwick used me as target practice, deliberately missing each shot. Roman did it for the laughs, the Fang did it because they weren't really sure about killing a fellow Faunus... or punishing one for screwing with their plans, for that matter."

* * *

Jaune spun in the air as a burning bullet shot past him. "Hey! Watch the plumage, will ya?"

"Well, that's what you get for crashing our little operation. Now, dance, you clay pigeon! Ha ha!"

"Please don't get hit, please don't get hit, please don't get hit…"

"Oh, hush up, deary."

* * *

"I became exhausted, and before Roman decided to blow me up you guys came in."

* * *

An explosion rocked the warehouse, and a red blur shot in.

"Jaune!"

"Ruby?"

"Grr… Little Red." As an assortment of differently-coloured teens poured in (there were approximately three team's worth of people), fighting off the White Fang goons, Roman bit back the curse. "And her little friends, too? Well, I better make like a leaf and get the hell out of here… or…" Malicious intent gleamed in his eye as Jaune saw him staring at the one Paladin Roman managed to snag.

"Oh, no you don- gah!"

"S-sorry!"

"Thanks again, deary!"

* * *

"Not only were you able to save me, you also caused the arrest of around 46 people and helped Atlas reclaim a large, mechanized battle suit." Jaune slurped up the remains of a grilled eel Ren had cooked up for him. Placing it back down on the impromptu interrogation table, he looked a little red-hooded girl in front of him. "And now, 1 hour after all the police interrogation and 3 hours after Torchwick escaped when we broke the Paladin, here we are. Sleep deprived, stressed, and tired from the adrenaline rush I had a few hours ago." A ginger Valkyrie jumped onto his back.

"You can't be tired, silly! You said it yourself. You were knocked out from midnight to late afternoon! And now it's only like, what, ten 'o'clock? On a Saturday? C'mon, let's celebrate beating up a bunch of bad guys at that IFLOP that opened up nearby! Wait, do we have enough Lien? I mean, we are twelve people, and Sage over there looks like he could eat a Caballus! Now that I think about it, can you even eat Grimm? Would they taste like black licorice? I mean, Grimm don't look like they'd taste good, and black licorice doesn't taste good. So-"

Ren unceremoniously shoved a stack of pancakes into her mouth (not that she minded). As she got off of Jaune to eat her pancakes in peace, Pyrrha giggled a little.

"Sorry, Nora, but we can't. Remember, we have early-morning detention with Professor Goodwitch tomorrow."

"Aww…" A green-haired colossus snorted.

"That's what we get for not following rules." Getting on his tippy-toes, Sun slung an arm around his larger teammate.

"Ah, c'mon, Sage. I couldn't leave an old amigo behind, and, neither could you guys!"

"You shouldn't have come along with the rest of the rescue team. You should've stayed back with Blake. What if any of the officers you saved and interrogated was at the warehouse? We -I mean, YOU THREE- would have lost a valuable contact. You didn't even have your mask."

"We? Ah! Don't tell me, Sage; you guys wanna join in, too? With Me, Blake, and Jaune, as a crimefighting crew? Oh man, this would be great! Wait, Jaune, Blake? What if we got the rest of your teams and-"

"Ooooohh, can we Renny? Can we can we can we can we can we can we can we can we can we can we..." They all disregarded Nora's babbling, but deep down they knew they each thought that, ' _Hey, that's not a bad idea._ '

"Aye, mate, but me, Sage, n' Neptune don' know this bloke. Well, Neptune moight, but not Sage and ole Scarlet David." Sun gave a pointed look at the fourth member of his team, who was currently reapplying some eyeliner he bought.

"What are you- Oh. Yeah, I got ya. When I said you guys wouldn't leave a compadre behind, I meant that you guys wouldn't leave ME behind when I went after Jaune." Scarlet snorted.

"A'ight, but jog me memory; WHY are we walking the plank, again? After all, we ain't students of Beacon. Besides, we scuttled that Paladin and helped lock up a couple o' scallywags." Yang, who was in the shower this entire time, was out, refreshed, and (thankfully for all boys present) clothed in her sleepwear.

"Well, the school rules basically amount to, one: don't do a dumbass thing that'll kill you, and two: don't piss off the teachers. And we did both."

"Also," Weiss spoke up. "Right now, all visiting students are under Beacon Academy's supervision. That supervision includes making sure all students, visiting or otherwise, follow the rules." Sage leaned over to whisper into a blue-haired boy's ear.

"Avast, mate! She seems be as uptight as you can be. 'Ave you tried to flirt with this one already?"

"Hey, huh up, man. She might hear. Talking about someone like this is not cool, dude."

"I CAN HEAR YOU TWO." She glared at them with a coldness that matched Yang's nickname for her: Ice Queen. But her face turned a light shade of pink, and her stare warmed. "Still, Mister… Vasilias?... it is nice to know that someone acknowledges how a lady should be treated." Scarlet gave his teammate a high-five.

As Ruby pouted in the background, Jaune rose up and out of his interrogation chair.

"Well, guys, I don't want a heavier punishment. I think we better head back to our dorms and sleep. Besides, I'm sure you're all tired from looking for me. And I'M all tuckered out from being treated like a clay pigeon. I'm going to roost; besides, isn't morning detention, like, 7 in the morning?"

"7:15, to be exact."

"Thanks Weiss. Alright, let's leave team RWBY's dorm."

"Exactly! Out you go, especially you ruffians from Team SSSN. Leave us ladies to our privacy."

"Aw, but I wanna play some more!"

"Don't make me turn this into an official order from the leader of JNPR." Jaune, making use of his wingspan, helped to shoo Nora out the door while everyone else exited normally. The twelve teens bid each other goodnight (with team SSSN expressing how pleased they were to meet the other two teams), yawning a bit all the while. The two teams from Beacon left SSSN to navigate the halls of Beacon to find their guest dorm.

Before she closed the door and turned off their dorm's main lights, Pyrrha noticed a pained look on Blake's face.

* * *

THWAP

"Ahh!" Very quickly, and very nervously, Blake's head shot up from the resting position it was in. Her eyes were wide, and her bow stiffened. A scowling Goodwitch stood over her.

"Miss Belladonna. Do recall that morning detention is meant to be a punishment. Not a mattress." She coolly adjusted her glasses. "Next time, try not to stay up too late." She looked around the room at the larger group of teens, all sitting a considerable distance away from each other (as per detention rules). "I may be beating a dead horse, but allow me to reiterate: Let this discomfort be a lesson that while your vigilante act was… appreciated, such a reckless and foolhardy action could have ended with unwanted, unforeseen circumstances." She gave a pointed glance at a (princely) falcon, who was still preening his wings. "Mister Arc stated that he was held captive in a warehouse, and treated… poorly."

"Understatement…"

"If his captors weren't so hesitant about harming him, he might not be here undergoing punishment like you all." Pyrrha, as patient and sweet as she was, held her face in her palm. A look of mild annoyance was present on her visage.

 _I don't really blame her,_ Jaune thought to himself. _In the beginning, her talk was scary and actually made me think for a moment- almost like one of father's lectures always intermingled with scolding whenever I was in trouble- but after hearing her spew the same words again and again like a chipped disc…_ he stole a glance at an analog clock at the far corner of the room. _Well, at least detention will end in 10 minutes. And then, I think I'll take a small, relaxing rest in my favorite courtyard tree. A much better spot than this dreary, grayscale hall and these glum metal chairs._

 _Oh wait, Ren might have me aid him in making sure Nora doesn't do much collateral damage. Looking at her now, it's likely she'll bolt out of the room with all the grace of a Goliath in a glassware store._ He wasn't wrong in that regard. The Valkyrie was sitting in her seat, a bored look on her face that slowly counted the seconds on the clock.

But she wasn't sitting still, oh no. She was vibrating; her entire body was vibrating. It was violent enough that it caused an audible hum to reverberate around the room, albeit low in volume. It was like electricity without an outlet to discharge to.

Jaune's prediction came true the moment Professor Goodwitch opened the door of their detention hall. She scarcely had enough time to tell them detention was over before a pink bolt of lightning rushed out the door. Ren poked his head out into the hallway.

"Oh no." Ren turned to face a rosy reaper. "Ruby, can you help me?"

"Sure!" She disappeared into the wind, rose petals marking her path. Jaune put a hand on Ren's shoulder.

"Well, I guess I'll go check out the courtyard." Ren nodded.

Finding an exit and walking out, Jaune slowly lifted himself up into the sky. Flying to the Western-Northwest corner of Beacon's impressive courtyard, he found a massive oak tree, planted in the corner.

 _Ah, my favorite tree._ Rising to an area just underneath the top branches, he sat down comfortably on a somewhat thick one. Taking a moment to inhale the fresh scent of greenery, Jaune then proceeded to look out over the courtyard.

 _Now, where did that Pink Spark run off to?_ He kept watch for her, like a hawk. _Well, that one girl over there definitely isn't her; she's sitting down too still. And that runner's too slow to be her, either. Come on, Nora, show a sign or something._ Immediately, a window near the central building, just a half-mile away, gleamed an electric pink. _Ah, so she's in the kitchen. How gluttonous._

He whipped out his scroll, and dialed Ren. When the martial artist didn't pick up, Jaune left a message for him saying that he knew where Nora was, and said that he would take a small break. He _had_ to ease up on his back and hips, after all that dodging he had to do the day before. So, leaning forward atop his branch, Jaune lay down and took in his surroundings. Since he didn't really have to look for Nora right now (Ruby had her in the kitchen, right?), he could fully appreciate everything he could see.

 _A view a painter would be jealous of. This late in the year, many are awake to view the sun's saffron rays are competing with the moon's azure aura. Ahh, a sight I've seen so many times atop the clouds, in my high-altitude kingdom. Well, it's not mine yet, but father did promise me to have the throne time and time again. Speaking of whom, I wonder how he's doing right now with the Ambassadors of the Kingdoms? Hopefully, Falconia and the Kingdoms can come to a… somewhat peaceful, somewhat fair, compromise. It wouldn't do if the King were to be afflicted with insomnia. Like Blake was this morning._

The thought made his brain pause for a moment. _Hold on a moment, Blake shouldn't be like that. While she may not be a deep sleeper, she's rather active once the sun rises. I wonder why she was out of it this morning..._ He noticed an onyx bow walking below. _Well, I guess I could ask._ Rolling over, Jaune dropped from his branch, and used his wings to float down to the ground. "How do you do, Blake?"

"Hello, Jaune." Well, looking closer at her, Blake seemed more than a 'little' bit off. Her hair was lightly frazzled, and her eyes had a tinge of grey around them. In her arms, she held several old newspapers and things like... were those police documents? "What do you need?"

"Well, that was a way to answer my question." He pointed to her face. "You know, you have some stuff around your eyes. Are you alright?"

"Yes. I'm perfectly alright."

"But you look like you spent an entire night reading or something. Not even Ren looks this sleep deprived, and he has to deal with Nora's incessant hyperactivity on a daily basis."

"I'm fine. Leave me be."

"Alright. But, can I at least ask what it is you hold in your hands?"

"No." And like that, she shoved her way past Jaune, and continued walking. Jaune merely scratched his head.

 _Well, that's a cry for help if I've ever seen it. I really do hope she's alright… And I wonder why she has those things in her arms?_ Something stirred inside him. Taking out HIS personal scroll, Jaune looked once more at a picture he took in it. It was a single image, a pristine map of the City of Vale and the surrounding areas.. before Ruby and company destroyed it when they burst into the warehouse. There were lines on it, pictures of trains and dust, and markings he barely recognized as being Mantalian- a language almost nobody spoke since Atlas became a thing. He scowled before closing his scroll abruptly.

 _… Are these portents of things to come...?_

* * *

 **A/N: I'M DONE! I'M DONE WITH THIS FOR NOW! I'll come back to it when I feel less like an ass. Not the insult, an actual person's ass, grinded into a chair with a lot of weight on me.**

 **Also, another cliffhanger.**

 **Also, Mantalian is from Mantle and is written like the Slavic language. As for why it become basically extinct, you'll have to deal with it in a future chapter.**

 **Also, I seem to be noticing the quality of my stories have been slowly whittling away before this sudden drop.**

 **Also, see ya later. Review or PM me. Bye.**


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